Rereading Lillian Smith’s “Strange Fruit”

Sometimes, a book, for whatever reason, does not grab you on the first read through. This was definitely the case with Lillian Smith’s Strange Fruit (1944). The first time I read Smith’s bestselling novel, I found it lacking, for a myriad of reasons. I think part of this feeling stemmed from all of the novels I have read, by Black authors, about interracial intimacy, sexual exploitation, and more. I thought about Ernest Gaines’ Of Love and Dust, Alice Childress’ The Wedding Band, Frank Yerby’s Speak Now, and more as I read Strange Fruit for the first time. As I thought about these novels in relation to Strange Fruit, I couldn’t see what Smith was doing with her first novel. Now, after diving further into Smith’s work and reading the novel again for a book club event, I have a different opinion of Strange Fruit. Now, while I still have some issues with the novel, I’ve come to view it in a more favorable light.

Even before rereading Strange Fruit, I’d tell people to read Smith’s Killers of the Dream (1949) first. This is something I did not do initially, and I feel that if I had done that my initial perceptions of the novel would have been vastly different. Each of these books tackle the psychological effects of racist systemic oppression on everyone with a community, the oppressors as well as the oppressed. However, one is a novel, weaving a narrative of Maxwell, Georgia…