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A review by leahtylerthewriter
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
5.0
"Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches."
In early 20th century Florida, a woman returns home not disgraced and swindled as her contemporaries expected, but resolute and self-actualized as she recouts the story of her life's journey.
Hurston explores society's reaction to a woman possessing the audacity to own her own self and mind in an astoundingly gentle and precise way. I don't know if I was more touched by her insights or her use of language. The dialogue is written in the vernacular and exposition is so elevated it's as if she threaded her words together with spun gold. The juxtaposition of these two contrasts produces a simple story that dives oh so deep.
Janie Crawford is a beautiful Black woman who makes waves because to not do so would be to live an intolerable life. She leaves a husband who doesn't love her, stays with one who grows to resent her because of his inability to control her mind, and runs off on a great adventure with the one who loves her more than life itself.
The historical significance of this 1937 novel that was banned and taken out of print for decades is worthy of a dissertation all its own. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If I were stuck on an island and could only take one tome with me, this would be it.
In early 20th century Florida, a woman returns home not disgraced and swindled as her contemporaries expected, but resolute and self-actualized as she recouts the story of her life's journey.
Hurston explores society's reaction to a woman possessing the audacity to own her own self and mind in an astoundingly gentle and precise way. I don't know if I was more touched by her insights or her use of language. The dialogue is written in the vernacular and exposition is so elevated it's as if she threaded her words together with spun gold. The juxtaposition of these two contrasts produces a simple story that dives oh so deep.
Janie Crawford is a beautiful Black woman who makes waves because to not do so would be to live an intolerable life. She leaves a husband who doesn't love her, stays with one who grows to resent her because of his inability to control her mind, and runs off on a great adventure with the one who loves her more than life itself.
The historical significance of this 1937 novel that was banned and taken out of print for decades is worthy of a dissertation all its own. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. If I were stuck on an island and could only take one tome with me, this would be it.