Book Review: Hitting a Straight Lick With A Crooked Stick: Stories From The Harlem Renaissance *Spoilers*
"Zora’s work will be felt for years in the works of many generations of writers."
– Edwidge Danticat
From the author of Barracoon and Their Eyes Were Watching God, a collection of stories, including eight "lost" Harlem Renaissance tales now available to a wide audience for the first time.‟
The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater and politics centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the time, it was known as the "New Negro Movement", named after The New Negro, a 1925 anthology edited by Alain Locke. The movement also included the new African American cultural expressions across the urban areas in the Northeast and Midwest United States affected by a renewed militancy in the general struggle for civil rights, combined with the Great Migration of African American workers fleeing the racist conditions of the Jim Crow Deep South, Harlem being the final destination of the largest number of those who migrated north.
“John Redding Goes to Sea” followed John Redding from childhood to adulthood. Throughout his life, John dreamed of traveling the world. Despite his prestigious education and willingness to travel, John heeded the wishes of his mother and wife, remaining home with them. The night that John told his family about joining the Navy, he was killed doing construction in a storm. His father, Alf, allowed his corpse to float into the sea “at last”.
“The Conversion of Sam” was about Sam Simpson and his willingness to win over Stella, a transplant to Harlem from Virginia. Sam abandoned his low-class lifestyle and got a job to be more respectable for Stella. After she agreed to marry him, Sam and Stella moved into a home in a middle-class neighborhood with the help of Sam’s boss. But Sam fell back into his old ways, losing their money to gambling. Only Stella’s injury incurred while searching for him instigated Sam to change his ways. He begged for his job back, which his boss agreed to only if he kept his word not to relapse again.
“A Bit of Our Harlem” was about an unnamed boy and young woman who met in a Harlem shop. Their mutual respect, purity, and sympathy created a bond over candy and conversation that the young woman had “sought” but “seldom” found “within her own class”.
“Drenched in Light” was about Isis Watts and her repeated attempts to shirk her chores and have fun instead. Her grandmother insisted that she cease her boyish behavior and threatened her with physical punishment. Isis ran away from home after one too many infractions and was found by a white couple driving through Eatonville. Isis took up their offer for a ride. The white woman asked her grandmother that Isis not be punished, rather that she travel with them to Maitland, to which her grandmother agreed.
“Spunk” was about two men, Spunk and Joe, who loved the same woman. Spunk paraded Lena, Joe’s wife, around town with no fear of retribution. When Joe finally confronted him, Spunk shot him dead and was exonerated on the basis of self-defense. Despite this victory, Spunk declared that the Joe haunted him in the form of a black bobcat to enact his revenge. Soon, Spunk died at the teeth of a power saw, claiming that Joe’s spirit pushed him from behind.
“Magnolia Flower” was told from the perspective of the St. Johns River about the escaped slave, Bentley, who built a village on its banks. Bentley married a Cherokee woman, Swift Deer, and they bore Magnolia Flower. Years after Emancipation, a man with a light complexion, John, arrived to build a school. John and Magnolia fell in love, but Bentley distrusted John for his similarity to the white man and sentenced him to death. With some help, Magnolia freed John and together they fled to begin anew, returning to the river 40 years later.
“Black Death” was a story about Mrs. Boger’s revenge against Beau Diddley. He spread rumors about her daughter, Docia’s, promiscuity in light of her unplanned pregnancy. In response, Mrs. Boger visited Old Man Anderson, the “hoodoo man,” who helped her shoot Beau dead when his visage appeared in a mirror (73). Beau’s death was determined to be from natural causes, and Mrs. Boger and Docia lived happily in Jacksonville.
“The Bone of Contention” was a story about Joe Clarke and his ownership of Eatonville. He called a trial along religious lines to debate whether Jim Weston was a thief and should be exiled. Joe presided over the trial and allowed arguments and rebuttals, but cut the trial short to prove his power and enact the punishment he saw fit.
“Muttsy” was a story about Muttsy Owens, a notorious gambler in Harlem, who pursued Pinkie Jones, a transplant from Eatonville. Pinkie resisted Muttsy because of her moral compass that regarded gambling as wrong. She ran away from Muttsy, even though he paid her room and board, which only fueled Muttsy’s conviction. He got an honest job and stopped Pinkie on the street, who finally agreed to marry him. At the close of the story, though, Muttsy resorts back to his old gambling ways.
“Sweat” was about the abusive of Delia Jones in her marriage with the unfaithful Sykes Jones. After 15 years of domestic abuse, Delia reached her emotional limit. Refusing to leave her home made Sykes angry, and he chose to scare her by caging a rattlesnake outside their front door. Delia realized one night that the rattlesnake was loose inside their home and managed to escape. When Sykes returned the next morning, Delia allowed him to venture inside and did not save him when he was attacked by the rattlesnake.
“Under the Bridge” was about the love triangle between 58-year-old Luke Mimms, his young wife, Vangie, and his 22-year-old son Artie. Vangie was the only woman Luke truly loved, but he saw that Vangie and Artie’s relationship was growing stronger. Luke turned to hoodoo charms and practices to stave off what he felt was inevitable—Artie and Vangie’s romantic love. In a moment of emotional tension, Luke checked for his activated charm and realized he lost it, which reversed its effects. Vangie and Artie kissed, and they all felt the emotional pain of betrayal.
“’Possum or Pig?” was a folkloric tale about a house slave named John who stole small pigs from his master. When the master came to his cabin to investigate, he threatened John with violence if he did not comply with his wishes. John claimed that the pig in his pot was actually an opossum.
“The Eatonville Anthology” detailed the lives of various characters who lived in Eatonville through a collection of 14 parts. It followed single men and women and married couples, detailing how they interacted with the community and each other. The characters dealt with events surrounding moral judgement, theft and self-governance, ancestral traditions and modernization, religious values and infidelity, and oral tradition.
In “Book of Harlem,” Mandolin migrated from Georgia to Harlem in search of excitement. He was not well received upon his arrival, so his roommate suggested he change his clothes, slick down his hair, learn to dance to jazz, and use banana oil. These changes attracted a woman, who exposed Mandolin to Harlem’s literary scene. Mandolin, renamed Panic by his peers, became a well-respected figure in the artistic community. “The Book of Harlem” was similar in that Jazzbo also migrated to Harlem from the South and was advised to make these changes in himself. When he began attracting women, he achieved the sexual freedom he wished. Eventually, Jazzbo found a self-proclaimed virgin and married her.
“The Back Room” began with Lilya Barkman, a Harlem elite, who valued her youth and beauty over all. She manipulated the men in her life, Bill and Bob, to postpone marriage and preserve these qualities in her appearance. Over the course of one night, Lilya’s hope for marriage was squandered as both Bill and Bob declared their love for other women and Lilya was left aging and alone.
In “Monkey Junk,” an unnamed man claimed he would never marry because he knew about women. But when he attracted a greedy woman, he failed to recognize her motives and married her. When she sought money from other men, the man threatened to leave her, but she threatened to take his money. His overconfidence underestimated the woman, who won over the jury and judge with her performance that detailed her fictitious grievances. She was victorious, and the man was heckled into moving back to the South.
In “The Country in the Woman,” Caroline and Mitchell Potts lived in Harlem. Mitchell expected Caroline to cease interfering with his affairs after moving from the South, but Caroline remained steadfast. He resented her unwillingness to conform to Harlem’s culture, but he continued his affair and boasted that he changed Caroline’s ways. Soon, Caroline enacted her revenge by following Mitchell to meet his mistress with an axe over her shoulder, proving Mitchell a liar.
“The Gilded Six-Bits” was about Missie May and Joe’s marriage. They were happy until Slemmons, a man who wore gold pieces as jewelry, gained Joe’s respect. Missie May had intimate relations with Slemmons with the belief that she would get his gold piece, and Joe swiped it from him when he caught them. In reality, the gold piece was a gilded four-bits. Missie May eventually bore Joe’s child and they rebuilt their marriage. In the end, Joe spent the gilded four-bits on candy for Missie May.
In “She Rock,” Oscar resolved to leave his wife, Cal’line, behind in Sanford when he moved to Harlem with his friend. On the morning of their departure, the men found Cal’line waiting for them with her bags. Oscar believed that she would change upon arrival and that he would find a mistress. Once he did, Cal’line watched and plotted. Oscar boasted that he had changed Cal’line’s ways, but one day, Cal’line followed him with an axe. She forced him out of the party for fear and retaliated with violence against his mistress.
“The Fire and the Cloud,” the final short story, detailed the conversation between Moses and his friend, a talking lizard. The lizards asked him questions, and Moses’s head was occasionally enveloped in a cloud, his mind’s eye traveling over the land. Moses explained to the lizard that he was lonely despite those who followed him. He reasoned that they neither loved him nor respected him, but that if he were to sacrifice himself for the cause, the people would heed his divinely inspired word. Moses created his own grave and walked off into the distance, passing his rod to his successor.
Chapter Summaries provided by supersummary.com and bookrags.com
My Review:
This was my second read by Zora Neale Hurston. I read Barracoon and enjoyed reading that novel, which felt more like an anthology. My book group AAABDG picked Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick for discussion. I listened to the audiobook version read by Aunjanue Ellis, which I highly recommend, because she does a wonderful narration in differentiating the characters. First and distinguishable is the eye catching colorful artwork on the cover. The introduction by Genevieve West was long, detailed and informative, but I was anxious to get to the stories. A beautiful forward by Tayari Jones (another great author). This is a book that requires you to take your time reading to understand the dialect of the time and to follow the changes in her writing styles that progressed and grew as written in chronological order.
Written in the 1920s and most of the stories took place in Eatonville, Florida and Harlem with colorful characters like Muttsy, Bluefoot, Spunk and Pinkie. I didn't love all of the twenty one stories, but I favored a few. "John Redding Goes to Sea" was depicting men v women and the desire to venture other places was heartbreaking. "The Conversion of Sam" depicts class and race division that tugs at your emotions. "Sweat" entails domestic abuse and infidelity, it was gut wrenching. "Under The Bridge," a sad but tender tale of love between a father, wife and son. "The Country in the Woman" brings Cal'line and Mitchell Potts to revisit with a hilarious outcome to the story, which should have been part ll to the previous story in The Eatonville Anthology titled "Pants and Cal'line." The final favorite was "The Gilded Six-Bits” that addressed infidelity and greed, but love triumphed.
"The Eatonville Anthology" were snippets of various stories and felt incomplete, but interesting just the same. The re-mention of Sykes Jones, in "Tippy" and womanizing Joe Clarke in "Coon Taylor,"and "The Head of the Nail," Brazzle in "Village Fiction" are characters from previous stories, which brought me familiarity. "Possum or Pig?" was the shortest story in the book (2 pages), but was humorous. Cal'line with her axe once again makes an appearance in "She Rock." I was not fond of the stories that were written in bible verses.
Overall, I enjoyed the read with its southern drawl vernacular, skillful use of idioms, class, gender, sexism, folklore and identity. Hurston explored the African American culture in these stories, as well as adultery and infidelity in a marriage. I'm proud to include this book into my collection.
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