Cover Image: Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

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Member Reviews

This series of short stories are a bit of a rollercoaster ride for me and I really enjoyed them. If you have never read Zora Neal Hurston (this was my first time), then know that at times she writes phonetically what some characters would sound like. It does not take away from the story but instead enriches the character development. Overall I would recommend.

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This was my first experience reading Zora Neale Hurston's works, and I absolutely loved it.

Hurston takes the mundane, everyday of black people's lives to tell stories of love, loss, and betrayal, heavy topics, while still holding on to elements of humour. In her stories, unity also exposes hypocrisy and the dangers of small-town living, as well as the difficulties of moving between two worlds: that of the small-town upbringing, and then that of the city, particularly Harlem. You get a real sense of place and time in these stories, and the distinction between men and women and how they circle around one another.

The standout stories for me were John Redding Goes to Sea, that gave you a real understanding of what it feels like to be passionate and the pain a parent goes through watching their child lose out on seeing their dreams fully realised; and The Country in the Woman, where a housewife moves from a small town to Harlem and still shows unpredictability her husband underestimates time and time again.

These two stories are tonally very different from one another, but they show Hurston's range as an author, and the tragedy of losing her before her talents as an author were fully realised.

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Book Review 🌻Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick by Zora Neale Hurston

Writing in New York at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Zora Neale Hurston was a preeminent Black female writer contributing to the blossoming of African American culture.

This collection of 21 short stories includes complex and contradictory character set in Harlem, Eatonville and Florida. The stories are a mix of satire, social commentary, romance, morality, race, identity, gender and folklore. Told with wit, intelligence and serious talent!

Written in the vernacular Zora takes the language of her community and embraces it’s poetical flow. It’s a book that shouts to be read aloud. So I part read the book, grabbed it on audio and listened and then to really appreciate how well the author writes phonetically I read and listened at the same time!

I loved the mix of stories, particularly Drenched in Light and The Conversion of Sam. I also loved the very well written Foreword by Tayari Jones which gave me a clear and informative introduction to the stories, the author and the context.

I really recommend this book. I loved taking one story at a time, even re reading them before moving on.

Thanks to @netgalley and @hqstories for my ebook copy.

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I have reviewed this book as part of my June Reading Wrap Up on my YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/EeHywG9jLmg

It has also featured in a book haul: https://youtu.be/-f39yG4sDLE

Thank you!

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My thanks to HQ for a digital edition via NetGalley of ‘Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick’ by Zora Neale Hurston in exchange for an honest review. It was published in February 2020 in various formats. The paperback edition will be published in July 2020.

Zora Neale Hurston is considered one of the leading figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Between 1921 and 1937 she wrote the twenty-one stories that are collected for the first time in this volume. It includes eight ‘lost’ Harlem stories that were only recently rediscovered in forgotten periodicals and archives.

Tayari Jones has provided its Foreword and it is edited by Genevieve West, who has written a number of works analysing Zora Neale Hurston’s contribution to American literature. Her Introduction places these stories in context as well as presents an overview of Hurston’s life, work, and legacy.

The stories are presented in the order of composition and are set in Hurston’s hometown of Eatonville, Florida and Harlem, New York City and most of them explore relationships especially those between men and women. The stories reflect serious themes of race, politics, gender, class and identity, yet sparkle with Hurston’s wicked sense of humour.

Many of the stories are written in the vernacular with grammatical idiosyncrasies and are suited to be read aloud. As Jones writes: “I would not do justice to this latest addition to Hurston’s oeuvre if I didn’t praise the splendor of its language. No writer before, or since, has regarded the language of the African American South with such affection and seriousness. Unfettered by respectability politics, Hurston lets the people speak for themselves. And speak, they do.”

With this in mind I obtained its audiobook edition, narrated by Aunjanue Ellis, and listened alongside reading the eARC.

Short stories always remind me of photographs capturing select moments from the lives of their subjects. Sometimes I wanted more and to know what happened next. A number of her stories are presented in a mock biblical style that blends high and low with the sacred and secular.

Overall, I found reading/listening to this collection a rich experience. I plan to add a physical edition to my library in due course. I already own some of Hurston’s non-fiction but would also like to read her autobiography.

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In this, a collection of Zora Neale Hurston’s short fiction, we see a range in topics, issues and statements from one of the greatest voices in African American literature. Covering areas from sexism, relationships, racism, folklore and the inability to be heard because of your traditions and roots, there’s sentiment and passion oozing from every word. I can’t claim to even begin to understand everything that has been written here, but I can certainly appreciate it and respect it for what it teaches.

The stories are presented in such a way that we first get a very in-depth and detailed introduction, which outlines a little about Zora Neale Hurston herself as well as examining her works. I found this both interesting and informative, as someone who has never read the author’s work previously, at helping me to gain a better insight into why she wrote about the topics she did. I admit that it did drag out quite a bit however, and perhaps could have been shortened, without so much critical analysis of the stories. I found it almost shaped my opinions of her writing, when I could and should have been forming my own thoughts.

Of the short stories, there were some a preferred over others (as is bound to happen) but I think my favourite was ‘Drenched in Light’, which features a strong young female protagonist who feels full of life and well developed despite the shortness of her story. Being named Iris, which just so happens to be the name of my youngest daughter, certainly helped make her feel believable too. But perhaps I’m slightly biased! I also found the writing itself utterly beautiful, flowing well across the pages, this was a dream to read at times, and I found myself wanting to tab many quotes. Zora manages to capture certain moments in time perfectly, with lush descriptions of seasons and places that made me feel as though as was walking beside her characters.

Truly a remarkable writer, and a voice that needs to be heard.

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This is my first taste of Zora Neale Hurston's writings, an anthology of short stories, eight of which are included for the first time, early works written when the author was the sole black student of Barnard College in New York, destined to become a influential and major figure in the Harlem Renaissance. As is often my experience of short stories, they are a mixed bag, some so very slight and others of more substance. There is an introduction by Genevieve West and foreward by Tayari Jones, both fascinating and informative on Hurston, her development and experimentation, and the stories that managed to get to the heart of the African American culture, life and community, although some elements of the black community were more hostile to them. Some might find the use of the vernacular in this collection a challenge, although there is advice that the stories benefit from being read out aloud.

The anthology is of its time and place, set in Harlem and Eatonville, Florida, touching on race, love, class, gender, sexism, folklore and identity. Relationships between men and women are explored, including adultery in marriage and infidelity, an unusual vengeance, family complications when a much older man marries a much younger woman, controlling men, drawing on the parable nature of biblical stories, and a woman whose past catches up with her. My favourite stories include Under the Bridge, Drenched in Light, The Guilded Six-Bits and The Country in the Woman. There are characters that are strong, vibrant and memorable like the unforgettable, adorable, full of life girl in Drenched in Light. This is an imaginative, compassionate, entertaining, humorous and satiric set of short stories, thought provoking and challenging, that are so worth reading. Many thanks to HQ for an ARC.

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