The Urban Lit Challenge

While packing boxes in preparation for our move, I realized just how many urban lit books I bought in high school and the first couple of years in college. I knew my literary tastes had evolved over the years, but it was quite a surprise to find 35 books that fell into that category on my shelves! (And that doesn't count the books I gave away and the ones that I borrowed and read).  In the past I've tried to go back and reread some of the books that I vaguely remembered, but I just couldn't! The writing seemed... well, I'll just say it wasn't what I was looking for. That was really disappointing and it made me wonder how I would feel about the stories that I really liked if I went back and read them again, too.

I've kinda given books of this genre the side-eye since "growing up" for various reasons. One is that the editing is usually shoddy or non-existent. That is a big distraction for me. Another hang up is when it seems like the writers are content to let stereotypes determine the characters. I like my protagonists to give me something new, or to at least grow and develop in some way. Stereotypical characters are both boring and annoying. Finally, I don't like reading the same story over and over, and although little details may have changed, the stories usually seemed all too familiar.

That being said, I know that can't be the case for the whole genre. I can't down all these African-American writers; after all, they are what I want to be: a published author. Plus I know that even though I won't be writing urban fiction I may be lumped into that category simply because I am a Black writer. So, to prove to myself (hopefully) that they aren't all bad, I'm challenging myself to objectively read five "street lit" books penned by five different authors by the end of the year. I refuse to spend more money on these books, so I'll be going back to some of the books in my library that I remember reading and liking but can't quite recall the story.  The books I'll be reading are as follows:

Conception

by Kalisha Buckhanon

In the same vein as her critically acclaimed debut novel, Upstate, Kalisha Buckhanon again shares an emotionally beautiful story about today's youth that magnifies the unforgettable power of hope and the human spirit.

Buckhanon takes us to Chicago, 1992, and into the life of fifteen-year old Shivana Montgomery, who believes all Black women wind up the same: single and raising children alone, like her mother. Until the sudden visit of her beautiful and free-spirited Aunt Jewel, Shivana spends her days desperately struggling to understand life and confront the challenges she faces growing up in a tough environment. When she accidentally becomes pregnant by an older man and must decide what to do, she begins a journey toward adulthood with only a mysterious voice inside to guide her. Then, when she falls in love with Rasul, a teenager with problems of his own, together they fight to rise above the circumstances and move toward a more positive future.

Through a narrative that sweeps from slavery onward, Buckhanon unveils Shivana's connection to a past filled with tragedy, courage, and wisdom.

In Search of Pretty Young Black Men
by Stanley Bennett Clay
"Los Angeles has no ghettos, according to some. And that is nearly true. But even behind the sun-kissed facade of privilege in its Black upper middle class is a harsher reality. In Search of Pretty Young Black Men is the tale of Dorian Moore, a mysterious and seductive young man who provides comfort to the moneyed, the neglected, the lost, and the lonely in an elegant hilltop community in Southern California. Among the women is Maggie Lester-Allegro, who, disillusioned by a loveless marriage, finds support in her small circle of women friends and sexual healing in Dorian's arms. The blessing brought by this pretty black man soon becomes a fatal curse, as terrible truths come to light. Maggie's husband, Lamont, seeks sexual solace outside of their picture-perfect marriage as well. He lives in the shadow of his larger-than-life father, a member of the Baldwin Hills gentry, and under the weight of secrets and lies that threaten to tumble the walls of his carefully guarded life and standing among the elite. This stunning new novel, by the author of Diva, is a poetically rendered, provocative, and revealing tale that challenges every notion of what we believe equals success, prestige, and, most of all, love. "

Leslie
by Omar Tyree
At the historically black college of Dillard University in the lush mystical city of New Orleans, the beautiful and serious Leslie Beaudet is struggling with a dark secret of power in a world that is pulling her in many different directions.

In the eyes of her Haitian immigrant father, Leslie is a queen who deserves more than the broken dreams and carnage of poverty. To her Black Indian mother, she is a source of pride and strength, a reason for carrying on. To her younger sister, already a mother of two and a high school dropout, Leslie is the only person who cares enough to share her woes. To her brother, she is the victim he failed to protect. To her college peers and teachers, Leslie is a determined, resourceful student, most likely to succeed, yet impenetrably private.

When a series of murders befall her New Orleans' community they point in Leslie's direction. Slowly, her friends and relatives realize they've never really known Leslie -- a complicated young woman terrified of failure, struggling with painful family secrets, praying for security that has eluded everyone around her, and craving the power to change her fate, a power that was hidden from her until now...when it's too late to stop her.

Child of God

by Lolita Files

In this searing novel, bestselling author Lolita Files tells the tale of a Southern family torn apart by the secrets it struggles to keep.
Everybody knows everybody else's business in Downtown, Tennessee. Neighbors while away afternoons at the local bar, swapping rumors about voodoo, incest, and illegitimate children. Usually they're gossiping about the Botens.
In this epic saga, Lolita Files unveils the hidden lives of three generations of the Boten clan, a family as cursed by fate as they are blessed with hope. There's Grandma Amalie, who's willing to sacrifice everything for her son; there's Grace, who manages to conceal the identity of her child's father for more than twenty years; there's Aunt Sukie, whose strange power over her husband, Walter, is matched only by the strength of her dark magic; and, finally, there's Lay, whose secret betrayals will set the Boten clan in motion, sending its members on a quest for self-discovery that will lead them from one end of the world to the other.
From the drug-infested world of inner-city Detroit to the jungles of Vietnam, Lolita Files deftly captures one family's struggle to drag demons out into the light in this compelling story of the bonds of blood, forbidden love, sacrifice and redemption.

Chasing Destiny
by Eric Jerome Dickey

Billie is as notorious for her beauty as she is for the hot yellow Ducati motorcycle she rides down L.A.'s meanest streets. Tough and talented, she does things her way. Until an unplanned pregnancy spins her life out of control. Her problem: Her lover Keith's divorce decree has been revoked, forcing him to choose between Billie and his dangerously manipulative wife, Carmen, along with their troubled and deceptive daughter, Destiny, a fifteen-year-old dancing on the edge of womanhood. Horrific things happen when Keith's daughter disappears in the company of low friends in dark places. And in chasing Destiny, Billie, Keith, and Carmen find their lives inextricably linked by a dangerous and seductive pursuit-at any speed, at any cost.

Pictures and summaries courtesy of Goodreads.com

So what is your take on urban literature? Are you a fan or could you do without it? Why do you think it gets a bad rap? Do you feel that African-American authors are automatically thrown into this category? Would you consider some books by non-AA writers (such as my fave, Angry Black White Boy) to be urban/street lit?