A review by rachel_the_managing_editor
The Street by Ann Petry

3.0

I had very mixed feelings about this one. I finished it surprisingly quickly for its size - the narrative (single mom raising her kid in Harlem in the 1940s) is easy to get into. Kind of reminded me of an African American version of Henry Roth's Call It Sleep (though I think I preferred Roth). Petry's voice is at times lyrical. But man, oh man is it heavy handed. Ultimately the antagonist ends up being poverty, but no one really gets off too easily - especially men. The forcefulness of the hatred kind of makes me wonder if something terrible happened to Petry.

I kept wondering how this thing would end, up until the last 5 pages. It very much reads in real time, and there's not really one big conflict. Everything sucks. Nothing and no one is particularly redeeming. But the end - wow! I'm not going to forget that one.

*Oh, and the summary provided on the Goodreads page is totally inaccurate, by the way.