Ann Petry

Ann Lane Petry

Explores the life and dreams of a young woman who struggles to raise her son in a suffocating ghetto world of racism, human degradation, and uncontrolled violence

The Street

Shelby Doherty

Maybe she should go see the Prophet again. No. He had done all he could. He kept her from being put out, and Jones still wouldn't try to put her out, but she didn't want to stay any more.

"Petry is the writer we have been waiting for; hers are the stories we need to fully illuminate the questions of our moment, while also offering a page-turning good time. Ann Petry, the woman, had it all, and so does her insightful, prescient and unputdownable prose." -- Tayari Jones, New York Times Book Review The Street follows the spirited Lutie Johnson, a newly single mother whose efforts to claim a share of the American Dream for herself and her young son meet frustration at every turn in 1940s Harlem. Opening a fresh perspective on the realities and challenges of black, female, working-class life, The Street became the first novel by an African American woman to sell more than a million copies.

Truly timeless. The Street isn't a place, but a living, breathing being feeding on the hope that someday, we'll make it out of here.

On this street, young single Black mother Lutie Johnson comes to find other women in situations that mirror hers - working women that leave good-for-nothing husbands and are barely able to get by on their own. Downstairs in her building, she comes across women that make ends meet by selling their bodies. Down further, in the dimly lit cellars and nightclubs in the dead of night, she finds men that act purely on animalistic impulse and desire, regardless of whether the women they want want them back. 

Lutie is a determined woman, working far too hard with her heart set on earning herself and her son a better living and leaving the Street behind. After working with a wealthy white family in Connecticut, she comes to believe that Better is possible. She can imagine herself and Bub living a life where money isn't the thing that destroys relationships and isn't what encompasses every thought of every day. 

I LOVE this book. I felt like Ms. Petry grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in to its pages as she so vividly illustrated the grim reality that is still so prevalent today, possibly around 7 decades after this book was first published. This is a story that gave me hope, destroyed it, gave me hope once again, and destroyed it all over again in a heart-wrenching cycle as I kept reading. 

joana ashley

Truly timeless. The Street isn't a place, but a living, breathing being feeding on the hope that someday, we'll make it out of here.

On this street, young single Black mother Lutie Johnson comes to find other women in situations that mirror hers - working women that leave good-for-nothing husbands and are barely able to get by on their own. Downstairs in her building, she comes across women that make ends meet by selling their bodies. Down further, in the dimly lit cellars and nightclubs in the dead of night, she finds men that act purely on animalistic impulse and desire, regardless of whether the women they want want them back. 

Lutie is a determined woman, working far too hard with her heart set on earning herself and her son a better living and leaving the Street behind. After working with a wealthy white family in Connecticut, she comes to believe that Better is possible. She can imagine herself and Bub living a life where money isn't the thing that destroys relationships and isn't what encompasses every thought of every day. 

I LOVE this book. I felt like Ms. Petry grabbed me by the collar and pulled me in to its pages as she so vividly illustrated the grim reality that is still so prevalent today, possibly around 7 decades after this book was first published. This is a story that gave me hope, destroyed it, gave me hope once again, and destroyed it all over again in a heart-wrenching cycle as I kept reading. 

crushed me, and forced me to think. i don’t want to say much but i will say that “the street”, that’s a real reality. tough reality this book makes you face, you become of apart of the street too.

donna 

With a new introduction by TAYARI JONES, author of An American Marriage and winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019 * As heard on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime 'Ann Petry's first novel, The Street, was a literary event in 1946, praised and translated around the world - the first book by a black woman to sell more than a million copies . . . Her work endures not merely because of the strength of its message but its artistry' NEW YORK TIMES 'My favorite type of novel, literary with an astonishing plot . . . insightful, prescient and unputdownable' TAYARI JONES New York City, 1940s. In a crumbling tenement in Harlem, Lutie Johnson is determined to build a new life for herself and her eight-year-old boy, Bub - a life that she can be proud of. Having left her unreliable husband, Lutie believes that with hard work and resolve, she can begin again; she has faith in the American dream. But in her struggle to earn money and raise her son amid the violence, poverty and racial dissonance of her surroundings, Lutie is soon trapped: she is a woman alone, 'too good-looking to be decent', with predators at every turn.

Anna Adams

Beautiful writing, heartrending story. I can't say what I want to say without spoiling, so I'm going to leave it here, but I loved reading this book. I'd read Ann Petry's biography of Harriet Tubman when I couldn't find this, and it was also beautiful. She's such an understated but lyrical writer. You are in every scene with her characters. Looking for the rest of her work.

clara

Suzie

Maddie

Bria

Molly M

kaitlan

With a new introduction by TAYARI JONES, author of An American Marriage and winner of the Women's Prize for Fiction 2019. 'Ann Petry's first novel, The Street, was a literary event in 1946, praised and translated around the world - the first book by a black woman to sell more than a million copies . . . Her work endures not merely because of the strength of its message but its artistry' NEW YORK TIMES 'My favorite type of novel, literary with an astonishing plot . . . insightful, prescient and unputdownable' TAYARI JONES New York City, 1940s. In a crumbling tenement in Harlem, Lutie Johnson is determined to build a new life for herself and her eight-year-old boy, Bub - a life that she can be proud of. Having left her unreliable husband, Lutie believes that with hard work and resolve, she can begin again; she has faith in the American dream. But in her struggle to earn money and raise her son amid the violence, poverty and racial dissonance of her surroundings, Lutie is soon trapped: she is a woman alone, 'too good-looking to be decent', with predators at every turn.

The Street

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