Before there was Alice Walker and Toni Morrison and Toni Cade Bambara and the rediscovery of Zora Neale Hurston, there was Ann Petry. The Street is a milestone in black women's writing, and a milestone in literature about black urban ghettos. This protrait of a black woman's struggle to survive in Harlem during World War II will haunt you for a long time, especially when you realize that a good deal hasn't changed a great deal. You will long remember too the characters who inhabit this street which becomes a metaphor or a microcosm for the "residence" of all disadvantaged, low income people. Terrifying and you owe it to yourself to read it in these day of economic downturn.

Released on Friday, November 14, 2003 at Olive Garden Restaurant, Concord Heights in Concord, New Hampshire USA.