A review by jayisreading
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

emotional reflective medium-paced

4.0

Hurston was well ahead of her time, creating a protagonist like Janie. It’s not to say that headstrong female characters didn’t exist in the past, but I could imagine some readers at the time might have been scandalized due to Janie’s fierce independence and the time she spent with three different men, which was so unabashed, I loved it.

It was a bit difficult to get into the writing style at first, but after a few chapters, the novel became an even richer text that beautifully shared the Black South’s language and culture. In addition, there was a lot to think about in this novel, ranging from race (and, relatedly, colorism) to gender/sexuality to the legacy of slavery. All of these were inevitably tangled up with one another, which added so much detail to an already rich story.

It took way longer than it should have for me to have picked this one up, and while I didn’t completely enjoy the story in general, Hurston gave so much to the reader to contemplate. This is absolutely a book that’s worth reading closely, and I can see why it’s assigned to students so regularly in the United States.
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