Rediscovering “The Street”
A 1946 novel rose from #72,910 in Amazon sales to #194 as a result of a piece on NPR’s “All Things Considered” last night. The book is Ann Petry’s The Street, about a single mother raising a son in urban America after WWII. Some have called it “an urban To Kill a Mockingbird — minus any redemption and hope.” Author Gretchen Holbrook Gerzina says the book is particularly relevant today;
…the upcoming presidential election..makes us think about what it was like to be a single mother raising a black son to believe he was worthy of all the best this country can offer. I can’t think of a better place to start a national conversation about the audacity of hope than with this undiscovered classic, as fresh and moving now as the day it was published.
The Street
Ann Petry
- Paperback: $12.95
- Publisher: Mariner Books (March 15, 1998)
- ISBN-10: 0395901499
- ISBN-13: 978-0395901496