Born around 1891 in
Alabama, Zora Neale Hurston learned early to make her own
way: she was just a teenager when her mother died, and when
her father married a woman she hated, Hurston left home.
After briefly working as a maid for a traveling actress, she
moved to Baltimore where she graduated from high school,
shaved a decade off her age, and enrolled at Howard
University. There, her first story was printed.
Unable to secure money to
graduate from Howard University, Hurston moved to New York
in 1924, arriving in Harlem with near-empty pockets but a
head full of stories that began winning awards for her. This
led to more opportunities, a return to college, a network of
other writers, and a publisher for her books.
In this book are 21
of Hurston’s short stories, including Harlem Renaissance
works that were previously considered “lost.” Many were
written in a way that reflects stereotypical patterns of
speech and pronunciation which, says Genevieve West in her
introduction, was risky and controversial but Hurston knew
exactly what she was doing.
While some tales are set
in Harlem, Hurston’s stories here start out in Eatonville,
Florida, where everyone knew everyone else. It the place
where John Redding lived before he died, floating in the
same waters that he dreamed might show him the world. It’s
where every man gathers at Jim’s restaurant to talk trash,
and where Sam met Stella, who changed him into someone who
never gambled and came home on time, mostly. Eatonville was
where Spunk Banks got too brave, where Old Man Morgan could
put down a curse on anyone; and where “white folks are very
stupid about some things.”
Don’t be surprised if
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is quickly
elevated to your local high school’s reading list. Yep, it’s
that kind of book.
Read, and you’ll almost
wish you were slumped on a wooden chair on Jim’s porch on a
hot summer day. Read, because authenticity oozes from every
page here and you can’t help but like the men and women in
the tales. Read, as author Zora Neale Hurston’s wit shines
between biting narratory descriptions and comments, like
sunbeams sneaking through Jim’s raggedy roof, underscored by
a mix of highbrow words and lowlife scoundrels.
You’ll also feel the heat
sometimes but it’s not always from the weather.
One thing: modern readers
may want to know that the “dialect” that Hurston insisted
upon may take some getting used-to, but it ultimately adds
to the realism that you’ll love about this book. For that,
Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is right
for any place.
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