The Street

The third selection of the Spilling Tea Book Club was “The Street” by Ann Petry, which is getting a well deserved revival right now. Championed by Tayari Jones (who wrote the foreword for a new edition) and mentioned even as recently in the New York Times by Isabel Wilkerson (who wrote the new Oprah pick, Caste), this book made it on my radar and into my book club. This novel was the first to exceed sales of one million books by a black, female writer. I highly recommend this excellent book.Lutie Johnson is trying to make a better life for her and her son, Bub, when she leaves her husband and father in Jamaica, Queens, and moves to Harlem, 116th street between 7th and 8th avenues. Just after moving in, Lutie meets the characters of the street: Jones, the super; his wife, Min; the first-floor Madam, Mrs. Hedges; and bandleader, Boots. Lutie is soon wrapped up in the crime and racism of the street, while aspiring to be a singer.This book is a thriller where some menace lurks around every corner on the street. But looming large over this story is the villain, racism. As the novel progresses, we learn the backstory of the many characters on the street, the actions they have taken to survive in a racist society which does not value their lives, let alone dreams. The characters manipulate trying to have some control in their lives. Lutie makes every good, noble choice that she can, but she is always thwarted up until the end. She is used by her father, her husband, the people in her new building. She can’t escape the suffering no matter how much she tries. Her only hope is signing at a casino at night, run by the proprietor, Junto, who also owns a bar on the street. While written in the 40s, this book feels extremely modern. The writing is excellent with a structure that builds tension by slowly revealing the history and intentions of the characters. This novel is like a chess game, slowly the pieces are put in position for an ending in a checkmate I didn’t see coping. The beautiful writing captures the aspirations of Lutie and the innocence of Bub, while trying to escape the grimy, trap of the street.“The Street” is brilliant from it’s structure, to it’s imagery. It is a book about racism, thrilling and horrifying, yet it does not preach. Petry shows the despair of racism through this story with a keen eye to detail and well observed characters. This book should be considered a classic and read widely for these reasons. Read my full review on Goodreads. ★★★★★ ◊ Trade Paperback ◊ Fiction - Literary, Thriller ◊ Published by Mariner Books on March 15, 1998. ◾︎

"The Street" by Ann Petry is a remarkable novel, a tour de force in its examinations of what life was like for African Americans in the 1940s. Petry's depiction of Harlem is disquieting and poetic, her story woven with threads drawn from real life. The main character, Lutie Johnson, is an "every woman" who struggles to improve her life despite the forces that are holding her down.Lutie Johnson is a single mother trying to rise above the life that fate has dealt her. She is separated from a husband who could never find a job and did not appreciate his wife going off to work, and she is trying to raise their son to want more than the life that white people expect from him. She finds an apartment of her own on 116th Street in Harlem, and even though it is a dirty, filthy trap, it is a place of her own where she could maybe save enough money to get to somewhere better. But Lutie soon learns that the street has other plans for her and that evil lurks at every corner. Anything she tries to improve her situation is thrown back in her face, and as the novel builds towards a certain doom, Lutie must make a decision to stand firm or compromise everything she has always believed in.What makes "The Street" so unique is Ann Petry's use of personification and metaphor to bring her setting to life. The "street" that traps Lutie and her son is a character that lives and breathes, that pursues and traps them. Petry's examination of racial dissonance and inequality is intelligent and poignant. She paints a grim picture of what it was like to be African American and poor. Much as with Richard Wright's "Native Son," readers know that no satisfying happy ending could await Lutie Johnson, who is very much a victim of her environment. Yet it is an environment that is forged by segregation, an environment that could exist on any street in New York, not just in Harlem. It is an environment that sadly still exists today, which makes Petry's novel a timeless classic, and perhaps a prophetic warning.

I hated this book. It was so hopeless. I felt for Lutie but I can’t understand why people make excuses for men ( and this was my reason for deducting a star). She was struggling to make ends meet but at the first chance her husband got he cheated and left. The sad thing is not much has changed because we love having baby mamas and the grass is always greener on the other side. We don’t understand commitment, working together to change our circumstances and we take comfort in blaming everyone else but ourselves. The crabs in a barrel mentality still has its grip because the goal is always to outdo each other, to feel we are better than others. I do agree that those were dire circumstances but now, opportunities have presented itself and we don’t take advantage of it and then blame racism. Until we understand that education is our only hope, our life will seem as hopeless as Lutie. The predatory nature of the street, was the perfect backdrop to the ending because at the end of the day no one wins and until as a people we start caring for each other and not looking to “conquer and subdue” we will never get ahead.

An exceptionally well written expose of what ghetto life must have been like in the past. I could vividly imagine the life of this woman and her son and I was moved to tears many times while I read. I couldn't put this book down, waiting to see what would happen next, and was shocked by the unexpected ending. A must read.

One of the best novels I have read in ages, and at the end I felt totally drained! What a powerful and emotional roller coaster ride. Quite a long novel, but the build up of tension and merging of subplots is well sustained to the end. Excellent characterisation, with a brilliant expose of the forces of lust, greed, hope, desperation, innocence, courage, obsession, and ruthlessness. The story progresses inexorably to what you know must be a dreadful climax, but it still shocks you when it happens. Utterly compelling.

One of my best reads of 2023, the story is deeply sad and raw. The plot twist, at the end of the novel, is heartbreaking to say the least.

Ein toll geschriebenes Buch, dessen Story packt und mitreißt und viel über die Gesellschaft der USA erzählt. Allerdings ist es auch ein sehr deprimierendes Buch, das wenig Hoffnung gibt.Hauptfigur ist Lutie Johnson, eine junge Frau in Harlem, die Mitte der 1940er versucht für ihren 8-jährigen Sohn und sich selbst das Leben zu verbessern. Aber es gibt keine Hoffnung für eine schwarze Frau unter diesen Umständen. Der Lohn als Bürokraft ist gering, es bleibt keine Zeit für den Sohn, alle Beziehungen sind gewalttätig und für jede Unterstützung wird eine Gegenleistung erpresst. Die Hoffnung auf eine Job als Sängerin in einem Tanzsaal zerschlägt sich ebenso wie der Versuch, den Sohn vor den Gefahren der Straße zu schützen.Ann Petry schildert entlang der Geschichte von Lutie Johnson die Verherrungen die Rassismus und Diskriminierung in Menschen und in der Gesellschaft anrichten. Rund um die Hauptfigur werden die Geschichten ihrer Nachbarn erzählt, die allesamt frustriert und bar jeglicher Hoffnung sind. Die Lebensumstände sind schrecklich und die Menschen werden dazu unmenschlich, gewalttätig und deprimiert. Die Autorin schaffte es dabei, einerseits die Monstrosität und teilweise fast sadistische Boshaftigkeit zu schildern und trotzdem Verständnis und Mitleid für die Figuren zu erwecken. Der stalkende Hausmeister Jones, seine sich ständig duckende Freundin Min und der skrupellose Bandleader Boots sind unglaublich lebendige Figuren, deren Geschichte deutlich macht, dass rassistische Vorurteile und Unterdrückung Menschen nicht nur von gleichen Chancen und Rechten abhält, sondern sie deformiert und ihnen jeden Lebenswillen nimmt. Petry analysiert anhand einer Straße in Harlem den Teufelskreis, in dem sich PoC damals und vermutlich auch heute noch in den USA befinden: Die Rassentrennung führt zu prekären Verhältnissen, dadurch bekommen Familien, vor allem Kinder zu wenig Aufmerksamkeit, sie rutschen ab und werden kriminell oder zumindest verwahlost und damit bestätigen sich die Vorurteile der Rassisten.Diesen Kreislauf kann in diesem Buch niemand durchbrechen. Das macht das Buch zu einem der deprimierensten, die ich jemals gelesen habe. Die Story reißt mit, wobei vor allem die Nebenfiguren sehr rund und interessant sind. Lutie Johnson ist als Figur etwas unrund. Offenbar hat die Autorin ihr die eigene, sehr kluge Gesellschaftsanalyse in dem Mund gelegt. Das passt nicht zu der eher planlos agierenden jungen Frau. Die übrigen Figuren sind stimmiger und psychologisch nachvollziehbar. Und Petry schreibt mitreißend und atmosphärisch dicht. Die Ausweglosigkeit der Lebensumstände in Harlem fühlt man und die ganze Trostlosigkeit wird einem so bewußt. Als Leserin lernt man viel aus diesem Buch, über Hintergründe und Wirkungen des Rassismus in den USA. Ein noch immer wichtiges Buch, dem man nur an einigen Kleinigkeiten anmerkt, dass es schon über 70 Jahre alt ist.

Right up until the last page the story was still going. Also never saw the ending coming.As for her parent choice's maybe not the best but she was doing what she felt the best for them both.