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A review by daws_online
Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
emotional
lighthearted
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
This book is a perfectly executed portrait of the main character and her frustrations to get the life she wants out of the life she has been repeatedly resigned to. However, what I appreciate about this book is that alongside doing that, it's an ode to language, or really an ode to talking, to the beauty of everyday 20th century southern black dialect. Hurston's background as an anthropologist is what makes this book tick, she's able to tell the story of a whole region and culture indirectly through language alone. There's full scenes of the book where nothing plot critical happens, people just gather around a porch and talk, but the talking itself is the action, the heart of the whole book.
My instinct is to compare it to the laconic style of Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises, where the whole point (to me) is that the characters' language fails to really capture the tragic plot and they can never really talk through their feelings. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, too, the character's emotions are defined and restricted by their ability to express them through speech. However, the rich figurative language of this Southern slang is a lot freer than anything Hemingway's characters were given, and the frequent switches into the highly poetic third person narration allows the reader to perceive even further that gap between true feeling and what we're capable of saying.
The string of relationships that we see Janie have over her life are captivating to read, and I think reveal a lot about the gender/romance conflicts that men and women have been enacting on the private level for generations. Ultimately, Janie wants a love of equals where her partner doesn't just love her (or really an image of her or what her partner would like her to be), but understands what she wants out of life and actively accounts for her needs. Social status and gender identity is a cage she forever fights to escape, and in the moments where she does, it's a real pleasure for the reader. Each lover gets a fleshed out, distinct, and wholly believable portrait of themselves, often accomplished in only a paragraph or two of dialogue.
I was also very surprised by the sudden changes in tone and honestly genre throughout the book as she goes from setting and relationship. At times it feels like there's a lineage between this and an Austen romance, at times with Hemingway as I described above, at times it has airs of an old school dramatic tragedy, and even briefly it slips fully into the tone of a thriller. Throughout it all, Hurston's language is confident and expressive and I gotta recommend this book to anyone interested.
My instinct is to compare it to the laconic style of Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises, where the whole point (to me) is that the characters' language fails to really capture the tragic plot and they can never really talk through their feelings. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, too, the character's emotions are defined and restricted by their ability to express them through speech. However, the rich figurative language of this Southern slang is a lot freer than anything Hemingway's characters were given, and the frequent switches into the highly poetic third person narration allows the reader to perceive even further that gap between true feeling and what we're capable of saying.
The string of relationships that we see Janie have over her life are captivating to read, and I think reveal a lot about the gender/romance conflicts that men and women have been enacting on the private level for generations. Ultimately, Janie wants a love of equals where her partner doesn't just love her (or really an image of her or what her partner would like her to be), but understands what she wants out of life and actively accounts for her needs. Social status and gender identity is a cage she forever fights to escape, and in the moments where she does, it's a real pleasure for the reader. Each lover gets a fleshed out, distinct, and wholly believable portrait of themselves, often accomplished in only a paragraph or two of dialogue.
I was also very surprised by the sudden changes in tone and honestly genre throughout the book as she goes from setting and relationship. At times it feels like there's a lineage between this and an Austen romance, at times with Hemingway as I described above, at times it has airs of an old school dramatic tragedy, and even briefly it slips fully into the tone of a thriller. Throughout it all, Hurston's language is confident and expressive and I gotta recommend this book to anyone interested.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse