Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance
'Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance' by Zora Neale Hurston is a collection of short stories that provide a vivid depiction of African American life in Eatonville, Florida, and Harlem, New York, during the early twentieth century. Through her skillful storytelling, Hurston captures the essence of black culture, addressing themes such as love, race, poverty, infidelity, domestic violence, and societal struggles. The stories are rich in humor, insight, and sociological perspective, portraying a diverse range of characters and situations with dignity and authenticity.
Hurston's writing style in this collection encompasses traditional Eatonville stories with unique dialect, Harlem stories reflecting themes of resilience post-Great Migration, and narratives with a dialect reminiscent of the King James Version of the Bible. Her ability to recreate characters and settings with depth and realism, along with her keen observations of human nature, makes this book a compelling exploration of African American experiences during a pivotal historical period.
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Sensitive Topics/Content Warnings
The stories include content warnings for themes of racism, domestic violence, infidelity, and substance abuse.
Has Romance?
Romantic themes appear throughout the collection, exploring the complexities of love and infidelity.
From The Publisher:
From "one of the greatest writers of our time" (Toni Morrison)-the author of Barracoon and Their Eyes Were Watching God-a collection of remarkable stories, including eight "lost" Harlem Renaissance tales now available to a wide audience for the first time.
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In 1925, Barnard student Zora Neale Hurston-the sole black student at the college-was living in New York, "desperately striving for a toe-hold on the world." During this period, she began writing short works that captured the zeitgeist of African American life and transformed her into one of the central figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Nearly a century later, this singular talent is recognized as one of the most influential and revered American artists of the modern period.
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is an outstanding collection of stories about love and migration, gender and class, racism and sexism that proudly reflect African American folk culture. Brought together for the first time in one volume, they include eight of Hurston's "lost" Harlem stories, which were found in forgotten periodicals and archives. These stories challenge conceptions of Hurston as an author of rural fiction and include gems that flash with her biting, satiric humor, as well as more serious tales reflective of the cultural currents of Hurston's world. All are timeless classics that enrich our understanding and appreciation of this exceptional writer's voice and her contributions to America's literary traditions.
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It's of historical and literary importance, but I did not find it to be in the same league as Hurston's other work.
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