Reviews

I think this is the best social commentary novel I've read in recent years. It's just that with the social commentary books I've read, I almost always encounter one (or more of the following) problems that make it impossible for me to rate the book highly: 1) The integrity of the characters is destroyed by the fact the author values delivering the message more highly than maintaining the aliveness of the characters 2) The message and observations are now quite dated, even if they might have been poignant at the time of publication 3) The author is commenting from a place of privilege; i.e. rich straight white man railing about the injustice of society (well, yes, but should we be amplifying their voice over others?)

The Street managed to avoid all of these traps. The characters are real living breathing people; published in the 1940's, the themes are as relevant as ever today; and Ann Petry was a black woman writer who lived in Harlem writing about a young black woman's life in Harlem. Perfect!

The Street is just a really skillfully written book, beautifully composed, and it adeptly finds the right balance between elaborating the "message" and telling the story of the characters. You really get a feeling for the absolute hopelessness that comes from living in a impoverished black inner-city neighborhood, and the ironclad barriers white society has erected, making it basically impossible for a young black poor single mother to stay afloat or to find any dignity or way to improve her lot in life. The Street is vivid, alive, and compelling. The ending was perfect.

Really, it's a brilliant book and should be more widely read and praised.

museumeg's review against another edition

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4.0

This book gutted me. It was uncomfortable and unpleasant to read. But it was also one of the clearest depictions I have ever read of the pain and rage that racism, poverty and sexism cause. It was written in 1946 but it is completely relevant today.

desireeslibrary's review against another edition

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3.0

Ann Petry is a phenomenal writer. She was a way of creating scenes that take their time to unfold and allows the reader to view the world through the eyes of her characters. She is remarkable in the way which she demonstrates how a novel can capture skewed worldviews and portray disordered thinking. Now, I am all for painful and poignant writing.... This was absolutely relentless and heavy handed. Honestly, it was a bit forcefully hateful. It was simply an overly depressing and borderline hateful novel about the lives of people who are too poor or oppressed to make it in a world that hates them.

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