The Trek For Tracks

Avery Tooley discusses trying to find black literature at a black-owned bookstore. The black moderate-conservative blogger writes: "I just found out that i got jacked for my copy of Dust Tracks on a Road by Zora Neale Hurston. The book’s been missing for a good minute, but I just realized it yesterday. Because I kinda need it for something I”m working on, I decided to try to replace it yesterday. Being me, I went to the local Black-owned bookstore first. Four, five, six shelves of 'hood lit.' Books by Pookie and Ray-Ray ‘nem, about Pookie and Ray-Ray ‘nem. And here’s the thing - looking for Zora Neale Hurston necessarily means that I can’t critique Pookie and Ray-Ray as authors or subjects. Janie and Sykes and ‘Lige Moseley were, for that time, the functional equivalent of Pookie and Ray-Ray ‘nem. You could almost say that they’re Pookie and Ray-Ray’s grandparents. One of the significant aspects of Hurston’s writing was the characters she chose and the language she used to describe them. Hu[r]ston deliberately chose for her characters the people who would otherwise go unseen and unnoticed. Likewise today. Only with the hood lit characters, we generally wish they would stay unseen and unnoticed."

He continues his commentary: "But, and this is a sofa, while I can understand that the bookstore has scads of hood lit, which I imagine sells pretty well, it’s hard for me to conceive why they don’t have a section of actual literature. I was pretty focused on what I was looking for, so I didn’t roam around the store taking note of who I didn’t see, but suffice it to say that I was very disappointed at not seeing one of the luminaries of American literature. When ole girl pulled up Zora Neale Hurston on their computerized catalog, she was like, 'The only ZNH we might have is Their Eyes Were Watching God.' I tried not to give her the side-eye, but when she asked me if I wanted to order Dust Tracks, I probably failed spectacularly. I could probably trek around the city and find a Black bookstore that has it — there’s a good chance I will — but I might just simplify matters by sliding over to Borders and copping."