Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick audiobook

3.75 rounded up.A number of years ago I saw the movie adaption of Their Eyes Were Watching God starring Halle Berry. I remember feeling so gutted, so moved . I read the book and felt the same way. I should have read more by Zora Neale Hurston, but I never did. I’m grateful to have had the opportunity to read this collection of her stories and I’m inspired to get to her other books. There’s quite a bit of explanation and literary criticism in the introduction, and while it seemed interesting and informative about what I was going to read, I just wanted to get to the stories and see what my reaction was. So I stopped reading the introduction and went directly to the stories. I did go back later to see what the reflections on some of the stories were . These observations were interesting in the context of Hurston’s body of work, and I got a better understanding of them, but I’m glad that I read them after I finished a story rather than going in with preconceived ideas.The collection represents her early writing, mostly written in the 1920’s, some published here for the first time, in chronological order of when they were written. There are some wonderful characters reflecting African Americans of the times, memorable characters in Harlem, in Eatonville, Florida. The writing in places is beautiful. “Spring time in Florida is not a matter of peeping violets or bursting buds merely. It is a riot of color, in nature —glistening green leaves, pink, blue, purple, yellow blossoms that fairly stagger the visitors from the north. The mikes of hyacinths are like an undulating carpet on the surface of the river...The nights are white nights as the moon shines with dazzling splendor...”(“John Redding Goes to Sea”“Iris had crawled under the center table with its red plush cover with little round balls for fringe. She was lying on her back imagining herself various personages. She wore trailing robes, golden slippers with blue bottoms. She rode white horses with flaring pink nostrils to the horizon, for she still believed that to be land’s end.”As it frequently is for me when I read short story collections, I didn’t love all of them. However, several of the twenty one stories stood out . “John Redding Goes to Sea” depicting women vs men, the desire to roam and explore other places was heartbreaking. “The Conversation of Sam” also focuses on men and women, but on class and race differences as well. I found “A Bit of Harlem”, which is a very short one to be moving, filled with empathy and kindness and hope and is one of my favorites. “Drenched in Light” has the rambunctious and full of life little Iris, my favorite character in all of the stories. “Magnolia Flower”, a story within a story told by the river to the brook, is a love story with a deeper theme of racism. “The Eatonville Anthology” is comprised of short vignettes telling so much about a cast of characters portraying town life in this all black community where Their Eyes Were Watching God takes place. I found the stories to be moving, enlightening and funny at times. I don’t pretend to fully understand all of the over twenty stories, but I think that anyone who has loved Hurston’s other works will appreciate how her writing began and get an understanding of her place in African American literature.I received an advanced copy of this book from Amistad through Edelweis.

This is an incredible, improbable book: though Hurston died in 1960, this short fiction collection includes pieces contemporary readers have never seen before, because they were published in periodicals and journals that have long been forgotten. There are 21 pieces in all, presented in chronological order, written between 1921 and 1937. (As a reference point, Their Eyes Were Watching God was published in 1937.) I listened to the audiobook version, which I highly recommend. But no matter which format you choose, don't miss the excellent foreword by Tayari Jones and introduction by editor Genevieve West.

Hitting A Straight Lick ....The first thing about this collection you notice is the introduction! Which is absolutely fantastic. It should be studied for proper “introduction writing” for it beautifully sets the foundation of this story collection. And the foreword by Tayari Jones is just as great as the introduction. In fact Tayari Jones suggestion, “I recommend reading this work aloud, enjoying the feel of the words in your mouth, and the sound of English tightened and strummed like the strings of a banjo.” You’ll understand why that advice is necessary and important as you delve into these stories with dialogue often written “in idiom—often described as dialect” the reading out loud does bring a certain delight to the printed words and helps transport you to the place and time. Genevieve West is so judicious in her introduction, I couldn’t wait to get to the stories! And some of these stories will have you laughing out loud as it is easy to ascertain that Zora had a great sense of humor and wasn’t afraid to let it shine. That along with her decision to use idiom also reveals the courage she had as a writer. “Hurston resisted the pressure to conform and presented her characters in their full, complex, and contradictory humanity.” I enjoyed the mock biblical stories for their unconventional constructions and my favorite story was UNDER THE BRIDGE, a sad but tender tale of love between Father, Wife and Son. There is so much to enjoy here and I can honestly say there weren’t any duds. That is a rarity in story collections but a pleasant verity in this collection. So, big thanks to Amistad for gifting me this book. Book is out and available now. Get it, the foreword and introduction alone are worth the price you’ll pay!

Genius.Zora Neale Hurston is a literary genius. How is it more people are not screaming from the rooftops about her work? I have to change this!This collection of short stories was nothing short of amazing. Each story had its own ability to reach in and touch your soul and evoke different emotions and feelings: heartwarming, sadness, hope, acceptance, revenge, redemption, forgiveness, etc. There are about 4 stories that I didn't connect with or weren't that interested in, but the rest were phenomenal. The prose is gorgeous and authentic. I felt so connected with these characters, some are very beloved to me now. I am so happy to have this in physical format so I can pick it up and reread these stories whenever I like!

There is magic in being able to capture the essence of your people. Every single word that Ms. Zora has put to paper, that I've engaged with thus far, has held me in the center of its hand. This was impeccable. Each story was better than the one before it. Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick illustrated nuances re: African American life. It's crazy how some adult relationships have yet to evolve on a base level past some of the experiences of the women and men in these stories written in the 20s/30s. I love how Ms. Zora created these women in her stories who were not committed to ill-treatment and docility. They all made their break for it, where necessary. They stood what they could stand, and withstood some shit they shouldn't have had to withstand, and where necessary they went their own way unless their men could clean up their act. Every one of them. It's never easy, but she always sets most of the women characters on a path towards justice by any means necessary; whether those means be watching a man die by his own foolishness, or employing the conjure man, etc. Zora writes women striving for what's hers, even if they have to go through the hills and gully to get there. I loved the audio because the narrator was talented. Aunjanue Ellis is gifted with the patois, and colloquial language of the time. It was a delightful listen. Favourite stories include: The Conversion of Sam, Black Death, Muttsy & Sweat (!!!)

Those who know me know I feel Zora Neale Hurston is the OG of storytelling and one of the very best to ever do it. This collection of short stories only strengthens my argument. Ms. Hurston was a writer of the people! These stories were written over 60 years ago, but still resonate so loudly today. I love it!!

A collection of 21 short stories - some published again for the first time in decades - from one of the brightest lights of the Harlem Renaissance. The stories are presented in the order that they were published, so as you read them, you get a sense of Hurston's development, or how she is willing to experiment with new styles or settings. She doesn't write in regional dialect and then she does; she writes in Harlem before going to Eatonville, Florida again; she writes a Biblical style in "The Book of Harlem". I admit I'd only read the author's anthropology before this - her book Barracoon. But in her stories, she doesn't hesitate from looking at the ugly and violent - certainly enough to shock the rising middle class that may have read her - and daring to find humor in all this. Of course, as anybody who uses humor to cope with these things knows, there is the risk of misinterpretation. At the end of an intense story about heartbreak and betrayal, a white character who has no idea what's going on says, 'Wisht I could be like those darkies. Laughin’ all the time. Nothin’ worries ’em.'Still, it's an event when something new is published from an established author. Absolutely worth a look.

3.5 stars? It's really hard to properly rate this. It was an interesting read from a historical or academic perspective. A lot of the change stylistically was interesting and it's interesting to see how it fits in with her longer works. I'm not sure that I would say that I enjoyed all of the short stories. A lot of them were very similar, so it felt repetitive (though, this is just all of her works -- it wasn't curated by her to be a collection, so I have considered that). There were some specific ones that were quite interesting and did enjoy, even if there were a lot that I felt more lukewarm about. I felt like there was a lot to unpack thematically in a lot of these. Some of them, I was able to follow the themes and what they meant, but some of them seemed to have mixed or surprising messages. I think I would perhaps have a different understanding were I doing a closer reading in a different context. I did appreciate the introduction. The only real criticism I have of the additional information is that it may have been better if the information about each short story were at the beginning of each individual story, not all just at the beginning of the book as a whole. Since I listened on audiobook, I couldn't go back and forth to read about each story, which I think would have added to the experience. Overall, I'm glad I read it. I could see myself potentially returning to this if I end up doing a deep-dive into classics later. I think I would appreciate it more in that context. I would definitely recommend it to people who have enjoyed her other work.

I greatly enjoyed this outstanding collection of short stories. They were lush and unique and everything I expect from my favorite author. I also really appreciated the introduction at the beginning with all of the information about the stories.

This is my first experience with Zora Neale Hurston, and I found the introductory information as insightful and interesting as the stories compiled here.Some of the stories in this collection were lost over time and recovered.. which very much appeals to the literary nerd in me, and I loved reading Hurston's accounts of the time. Her wit and commentary are sharp and pervasive, and though very much about a narrow demographic and place in time, the writing is fresh and translates well.

A new collection of Hurston's stories, which includes nine newly discovered stories which have not been republished in book form since they first appeared in Black magazines of the twenties and thirties. Eight of the nine new stories were set in Harlem, which changes somewhat the perception of Hurston as a writer who was only concerned with the rural Southern experience. There were a few other stories which were not in the anthologies I read last year. Most were humorous, especially the ones written in a mock-Biblical style.

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick is a collection of Zora Neale Hurston’s short fiction, including eight recently-rediscovered stories. Crooked Stick presents her stories in the order she wrote them, which allows us to see her growth and change as a writer. Hurston’s stories are in rural black idiom. Other reviewers found this made her stories difficult to read. I found her first stories most difficult to understand, but I either easily slipped into idiom or her writing became more accessible as she developed as a writer. The contrast between idiom and Hurston's more writerly voice within a single story worked well for me. And, as Tayari Jones wrote in her introduction, Hurston's stories profit from being read aloud, especially accompanied by an occasional guffaw.“Well, well, doan cry. Ah thought youse uh grown up man. Men doan cry lak babies. You mustnt take it too hard bout yo ships. You gotter git uster things gitten tied up. They’s lotsa folks that ’ud go ’on off too ef somethin didn’ ketch ’em and hol’ ’em!” (p. 2)Many of Hurston's stories featured her hometown of Eatonville, while eight were set in Harlem. Several included recurring characters, especially Joe Clarke and Cal'line. One story was peopled by Brer Rabbit and Brer Dog. Several were "bible" stories, although some of these had more secular themes. I was not a fan of her secular bible stories, but I loved the joy in stories like Drenched in Light, The Eatonville Anthology, and The Gilded Six-Bits. That joy did not depend on money – and was sometimes undermined by it. Hurston loved many of her characters and the ways that they shared their love for each other, as in this piece of "banter that pretended to deny affection but in reality flaunted it":“Aw, Joe gimme some mo’ dat tater pone.” “Nope, sweetenin’ is for us men-folks. Y’all pritty lil frail eels don’t need nothin’ lak dis. You too sweet already.” “Please, Joe.” “Naw, naw. Ah don’t want you to git no sweeter than whut you is already. We goin’ down de road a lil piece t’night so you go put on yo’ Sunday-go-to-meetin’ things.” (p. 204) In all of her stories, though, Hurston was “hitting a straight lick with a crooked stick,” critiquing the politics of race, gender, and class in ways that were acceptable to both readers and editors. Whites barely showed up in these stories. If anything, they were like ignorant and misguided children: White folks are very stupid about some things. They can think mightily but cannot feel (p. 74). Compare Hurston's writing about whites in these stories to that in Langston Hughes' somewhat later The Ways of White Folks , where whites are a malignant presence and onmipresent. The villains in Crooked Stick tend, instead, to be men – although some of her women are foolish and some of the men are good. Perhaps the difference in attitude between these two writers comes from Hurston growing up in one of the first self-governing all-black municipalities in the US; perhaps from her work as an anthropologist (which requires understanding coming to understand very different people); perhaps because she couldn't afford to anger the whites who often supported her work. Regardless, to my (white) ears, her approach makes her books more accessible to a broad audience.I read this book with my mother (and, vicariously, with her book club).

Zora Neale Hurston is one of my favorite authors. So this collection of previously unpublished short stories (some were even unknown) was a treat. It was a delight to revisit Eatonville and visit Harlem and get to know some new characters and some we've met before, through her artistic vision. It takes me longer to read her work because I have to sound out much of the dialogue, but it's worth it.