Fiction-Stories

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick

Zora Neale Hurston was one of the pioneering authors during the Harlem Renaissance and is most well-known for the novel Their Eyes Were Watching God. This work is a compilation of short stories published during her life. Many of these short stories are previously unavailable to a wider audience. Together, they open a tall and wide window to African American life in Eatonville, Florida, Hurston’s hometown, and Harlem, New York, in the early twentieth century.

Hurston beautifully depicts a dialect of African American speech in Eatonville, consistent with most of her other works. Although this speech can be a difficult barrier at first, reading it gets better with practice. In the twenty-first century that I write, such indigenous dialects are falling by the wayside due to the pervasive influence of television. The capture of these patterns in written language is simply ingenious. They add another layer to her writing – and to the reader’s imagination.

The stories are humorous and intriguing in how the depict the culture in which Hurston was raised. They are also intriguing from the sociological perspective. They portray marriages and family life in a respectful yet insightful style. Hurston never demeans nor mocks but often touches upon difficult subjects like sexuality and domestic violence. In this work, there is not one character that I remember being white; instead, she focuses upon black culture among blacks. No doubt that her skill stems in no small part from her advanced education in anthropology.

Her writing style in this volume falls into three categories: First, traditional Eatonville stories with their unique dialect; second, the Harlem stories without a recast dialect and with themes of trying to reestablish lives after the Great Migration; third and finally, stories with a dialect similar to the King James Version of the Bible that harken contemporary stories back to the Christian narrative. Each story is filled with human dignity, humor, and an ain’t-that-so-true approach to life.

Fellow author Alice Walker famously rediscovered Hurston’s gravesite over a decade after a death in anonymity. Hurston’s stories have grown in influence since. It is now almost fifty years since that rediscovery. This work provides a small but unique contribution to Hurston’s now-famous literature. Fans of African American culture and literature will enjoy this collection that vividly relates her seminal style. Thanks to West and Amistad publishing house for the research to provide us with these short stories!

Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick
By Zora Neale Hurston; edited by Genevieve West
Copyright (c) 2020
Amistad
ISBN13 9780062915795
Page Count: 250
Genre: Short Stories, Anthology
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