Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
Stories from the Harlem Renaissance
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4.5 • 30 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
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. New York Times’ Books to Watch for
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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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Zora Neale Hurston was one of the leading lights of the Harlem Renaissance, a flowering of modernist black literary, artistic, and musical talent during the 1920s. These previously uncollected short stories come from that period, published in weekly magazines and then forgotten until they were discovered on microfiche decades later. Each of them showcases Hurston’s strikingly modern perspectives on trauma, relationships, and race. In “Magnolia Flower,” a lifetime of pain blackens the heart of an enslaved man long after he escapes, while in “Drenched in Light,” a wealthy white couple fawn over an African American child as if she existed for their amusement. The intense moments Hurston captures in her writing reflect both the best and worst of human nature, while also shining a light on the United States’ ongoing struggles over race. Nearly a century after they were written, Hurston’s stories pull us into her characters’ troubles and triumphs. We are immensely grateful that these previously lost works have been rediscovered.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This arresting collection from Hurston (Barracoon) includes eight previously unpublished works, mostly set in or featuring characters from her hometown of Eatonville, Fla. Many of the stories draw on folklore and mythology to dramatize conflicts around gender, class, and migration. In "John Redding Goes to Sea," a young boy named John dreams of leaving his small Florida town and continues to dream of leaving after he's grown up. Delayed at first by his mother, who neither understands nor approves of her son's wanderlust, and then his wife, John finally gets an opportunity, undaunted by a portentous, impending storm. In "Magnolia Flower," a young couple's stealing of time together away from the woman's overbearing, abusive father is framed as a bedtime story shared by an anthropomorphic river to a splashing brook after it disrupts the river's slumber (" Oh, well,' the river muttered, I am wide awake now, and I suppose brooks must be humored'"). Hurston ingeniously uses the cadence of her characters' speech to denote regionalism and class there's a marked difference between how her Eatonville characters speak and how her Harlem characters speak. Arranged chronologically, the collection offers an illuminating and delightful study of a canonical writer finding her rhythm.
Customer Reviews
A love for Zora
The dialect of Zora brings a sense of home. I can hear my grandparents. Reading these stories brought a sense of pride but also showed me that things haven't changed too much. I have a sense a pride to hold these stories within my heart.