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Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston

Start date: June 1, 2024

Finish date: June 15, 2024

Discussion: Archived-A Year of Banned Books

Discussion leader: Erica

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Archived-A Year of Banned Books

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By Erica , Quality Control Supervisor · 1 post · 96 views

last updated Dec 12, 2023 04:05PM

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What Members Thought

Nov 03, 2008 Book Concierge rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: love, movie, favorite, 1001-books-you-must-read-before-you, classic, african-american, own, relationships, book-club, library

5***** and a ❤

One woman's struggle for independence.

Zora Neale Hurston was part of the Harlem Renaissance of writers. This work takes place from about 1899-1930 in the deep south. It tells the story of Janie who is first married to Logan Kennick, an older "safe" farmer, and then to Joe Starks, a smooth-talking "respectable" man, but finally finds love with TeaCake, a gambler and migrant worker. She slowly comes to realize her own desires and to stand up for herself.

An extraordinary work, altho ...more

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Jan 14, 2008 Nathan Albright rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: challenge

I read this book for the monthly CASA book of the month club in our local chapter [1], and in reading this book I found it strangely topical and a far better and deeper book than I remember when I first read it as a somewhat jaded high school student. Perhaps the depth was there, it just simply was not apparent to me at the time. I may perhaps be forgiven for having not always been a deep a reader as I fancy myself to be now. At any rate, this book is one that is much higher regarded now than it ...more

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Jan 15, 2024 Avigail rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: challenges, audiobook, youtube-rec, everand, physical-book, podcast-rec, 2024

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a classic African-American book I think would have been appropriate to read next month (February) as it is African-American Heritage Month.
It is also a book I had on my TBR for a long time (my flight attendant days). Yes, I understand why we need to read diverse books that are different from my community's.
On one hand, I loved the writing style, and I loved the main character and following her journey through life's struggles. On the other hand, I felt the story ...more

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Jan 24, 2009 Monique rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 1001-books-to-read-before-you-die, fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Once again I am reviewing a book that is required high school reading for a lot of people. But was not for me. And while I was pleasantly surprised with "To Kill A Mockingbird", I don't have that same feeling with Ms. Hurston's novel. But isn't that how it goes with required high school reading? I am not saying that I hated it but I am rather indifferent to the whole novel.

First let me explain the novel to you (those of you that haven't read it). The synopsis is a little misleading (in my opinio Once again I am reviewing a book that is required high school reading for a lot of people. But was not for me. And while I was pleasantly surprised with "To Kill A Mockingbird", I don't have that same feeling with Ms. Hurston's novel. But isn't that how it goes with required high school reading? I am not saying that I hated it but I am rather indifferent to the whole novel.

First let me explain the novel to you (those of you that haven't read it). The synopsis is a little misleading (in my opinion). The story is about a black woman, Janie Crawford, who was raised by her grandmother (a former slave). Janie's grandmother had certain ideas about what a good life was and enforced those on Janie, who bowed to her wishes. That is just the first part of the book. The rest of the story is about Janie's journey through life trying to find herself. Sounds interesting doesn't it?

Now I have several issues with the book overall but I will start with the good. "Their Eyes Were Watching God" was a great depiction of the life of the main character and the struggle she (and other black women) had growing up in a post slavery world. You see some of the hardship and a little of the racism that occurred. Hurston used the black dialect as a literary tool to make her to keep with the time and place of the story and the economic status of her characters.

While the language is in keeping with the time of the story, it takes a little getting use to. When I first started reading the story I had to read the character's dialogue a couple of times to get what they were saying. After I got uses to it, it went smoothly.

The characters were flat. They were very one dimensional. The main character Janie never really changed. Her situation changed. The person she was living with changed. But she didn't. She just sort of followed where they lead her and became who they wanted her to be. Now I don't know if that says something of the women of her time or if Hurston was trying to convey a message. Whatever it was it left a lot to be desired. The other main character Tea Cake had a little more dimension to him and the story began to feel as if it was more about Tea Cake than Janie. When Janie married Sparks she became the docile, helpful house wife. When she married Tea Cake she sort of became his partner in crime, a traveling companion. But I never really felt any connection between the two. The characters never jumped off the page and made me feel for them or really care what was happening.

Another thing that I have issues with is the treatment of violence against women. In the story, both Joe (Janie's second husband) and Tea Cake strike Janie, for minor reasons. The story portrays this as a normal occurrence. The men in the story even joke about abusing their wives and such. This may have been "normal" or "acceptable" at the time. But for an African-American artist and a woman whose heyday was during the Harlem Renaissance, I think Hurston missed an opportunity to make some kind of social commentary. Or maybe she did by playing wife beating off as a causal occurrence between man and wife.

This book really didn't catch me. It left me with a lot of questions (is that a good sign?) and just sort of feeling like "it's done, oh well". ...more

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Mar 31, 2011 Marla rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: made-me-laugh, religion, book-club, classics, romance, historical-fiction, adult, zz-2014

Interesting story about a pretty, light-skinned black woman's life and loves. She married for security, for excitement and for love.

The southern speech makes for difficult reading. It didn't bog me down much as I read, but I had a terrible time finding things when I referred back in the text. I did not care for the Foreward or Afterward, but the Chronology and Valerie Boyd's "She WAS the Party" describing Zora Neale Hurston were both very interesting.

Janie is a strong woman who started as a gir ...more

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