Their Eyes Were Watching God in fiction files redux

Oct 22, 2013 Ben Loory rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Half gods are worshipped in wine and flowers. Real gods require blood.

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Nov 07, 2008 Maureen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, novels

what i said to brian is a good capsule review, i think:

i have read that preeminent black writers of hurston's generation like richard wright scorned this book as something that would be palatable to white people, angered that it didn't push the political agenda, and that makes me sad because that means they missed what you and i get out of this book: the universality of human experience, which is couched in black american culture but surpasses that. that porch is an example of hurston's love for ...more

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Oct 01, 2009 Brian rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: read-2009

I read this book and fell in love with a woman named Janie. And I think given the chance she would have loved me back for I would never have wanted to change her. Zora Neale Hurston created this woman and for that I feel much obliged. I imagine Janie is back in Florida, sitting on her porch and telling jokes and laughing and playing games. And I would love to stumble on to her porch, grab a chair and play a game of checkers with her. Later we could go fishing.

She knew things that nobody had ever I read this book and fell in love with a woman named Janie. And I think given the chance she would have loved me back for I would never have wanted to change her. Zora Neale Hurston created this woman and for that I feel much obliged. I imagine Janie is back in Florida, sitting on her porch and telling jokes and laughing and playing games. And I would love to stumble on to her porch, grab a chair and play a game of checkers with her. Later we could go fishing.

She knew things that nobody had ever told her. For instance, the words of the trees and the wind. She often spoke to falling seeds and said, 'Ah hope you fall on soft ground,' because she had heard seeds saying that to each other as they passed.

This is a story of real people, people that just jump off the page (or porch) and into your heart. Though the characters were African Americans in the early 20th century, I felt that they could have been any flavor of the human race in practically any century and in any place. Their zest for life was infectious. And their wisdom was overabundant. When told to keep a secret one woman simply says "Ah jus lak uh chicken. Chicken drink water, but he don't pee-pee".

One of the main characters of the story is the small town porch. Without the porch the story could not have been told. The porch was the heart of the community. It was a place to go to lift the spirits (and drink the spirits) and share the wonders of each day. Everyone should have a porch they can go to. I think the porch could be the answer to many of the world's problems (well, that, and bacon).

Zora Neale Hurston wrote this book in 7 weeks. She must of been a woman possessed because the tenor of the book is pitch-perfect.

Janie stood where he left her for unmeasured time and thought. She stood there until something fell off the shelf inside her. Then she went inside there to see what it was. It was her image of Jody tumbled down and shattered

That's just beautiful writing. And one of my favorite parts is when ZNH personifies the buzzards. I really did love Janie and I loved this book.

After reading Sutton E. Griggs and his "oh we are oppressed and must fight or die" and then Nella Larsen and her "woe is me for being neither black nor white", Zora Neale Hurston's joy of life in the face of adversity was a refreshing song. ...more

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Nov 25, 2009 Kerry Dunn rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: read-in-2011

Although I've heard the name of this novel for years and years I never had any desire to read it because I'm an atheist and to be honest, the title turned me off. So when a friend suggested we read it together I went into it truly knowing absolutely nothing about the story. I was immediately struck by how beautiful the writing is. Some of the sentences are gorgeously constructed and evocative and sophisticated. It took me about one hundred pages or so before the phonetic speech became natural fo ...more

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Dec 18, 2011 Gloria rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Like my friend Kerry, I had a hard time initially getting into this book, mainly because of the phonetic dialogue. But eventually I became accustomed to it enough that I found myself continuing to turn the pages to see what would happen to Janie.

This was a beautiful, quotable, lyrical, confusing story for me. While I, obviously, could not totally empathize with Janie (simply from heritage and the time frame), there were a great many other facets of her with which I could.
I admired her tenacity a ...more

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Jun 29, 2013 Lydia rated it it was amazing

I'm so glad I read this. I will be thinking about it for a long time. The dialogue is written out phonetically to match the dialect, which made it difficult for me to find a reading rhythm, at times. The more I read, the more I realized that I needed the writing to be exactly what it was because it transported me to a faraway place but made me remain an outsider to the goings on there, and that was as it should be. ...more

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