Their Eyes Were Watching God

Some of the most polished and insightful prose I've encountered. A protagonist of strength and beauty in a world that felt true.

This is a beautiful book; lyrical, soft, happy without being saccharine, romantic without being ridiculous, tragic without being manipulative, spiritual without being preachy. And with a central female character who has an assured sense of self.

Short Thoughts: I listened to this, which I think helped with the dialect, which some found hard to read. And I agree that the first 1/3 or so was a little hard to get into. But having completed it, I want to read it again in print. I watched the Crash Course in Literature youtube episode on it, which provided some details I about Hurston or the book that I either didn't know or missed.

I think I have a minority view about the ending that I talk about in my post on my blog. This was well worth reading.

My longer thoughts are on my blog at http://bookwi.se/their-eyes-were-watching-god/

3.5 stars

Absolutely loved this book! It was recommended to me by one of my best friends and I have to say an easy read that was very inspiring. I can relate to Janie which made it so much easier to read and get wrapped into the book. There is one thing I will always remember, “There are two things everybody got to find out for themselves. They got to find out about love and they got to find out about living.” Awesome book

Obviously... A classic for a reason! I adore this book because it's not your typical coming-of-age story! In this Janie doesn't come of age until she's much older which I can completely relate to... Definitely a fantastic read... if you have it read it you totally should 😍 🙌🏾

It was the inclusion of this book on PBS' The Great American Read list to finally talk me into reading this book. Now I see why people love it.

This is the story of a young black woman who grows and develops as a person through her three marriages to three very different men.

The language is beautiful and evocative, and the characters are vivid. The world Hurston creates in her story is the world of black culture, the 1930's South.

It's a magnificent story, with elements that will surprise you and shock you and energize you.

This is one of those books where you know you're enjoying it, and you know you care about the characters, but you don't know just how much until the end, when all your feelings rise up.

Review to come.

This is another instance where my rating is very subjective. This book is great–it's just not for me. I struggle with classics and with historical fiction and that's really why this book didn't work for me. I also think I would have enjoyed it ten times more if I had read it in a class, as that helps me get the most out of books I wouldn't have otherwise enjoyed (see: The Awakening and Austerlitz). What I'm saying is, this rating is just for me and stars mean nothing.

I really enjoyed this book. Hurston has such a beautiful writing style, and her use of imagery draws you in and captures you from cover to cover. The beginning of this book was a bit boring and slow, but as I read it more and more I found myself become invested in the book more. I LOVED the ending, which is quite sad but at the same time, I feel like it fit. The characters were beautifully written, and Hurston's portrayal of African American culture and dialogue was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Janie and her independence and how she was always yearning to find true love and to reach her dreams of true happiness.

I get why it's a classic, I do. It's just that reading it right after The Bridge of Beyond made it pale in comparison. I'd probably have given it 4 stars if I'd read it amid a slew of old dead white men.

Oh well.

A woman's journey through 3 marriages and simultaneously a portrait of African-American culture, end of 19th century, shortly after slavery was abolished. I could not care for any of the characters, the written dialect was hard to read, and Hurston's mix of writing styles was interesting yet slightly off-putting.

As always, happy when I actually can give a book a low star-rating on here, because it doesn't happen often enough and my average is way too high.

Liked this book more and more as I read it.

So beautiful. Great to read in the summer.

The language Hurston uses in this book is incredible. The “double-voiced discourse” between the narrator and the vivacious Janie is jarring at first, but, because it is so masterfully wrought, becomes the novel's heart beat.

At the beginning, Janie is simply “the woman,” a clearly separate entity from the narrator. Later, the two voices almost seem to meld. These undulations and trills created an interesting discussion about the narrator's identity in my book club. Some thought 3rd person omniscient, some Janie's inner self, some Phoeby, and others the author or an anthropologist. I finished on the side of an anthropologist; Hurston was a well-educated anthropologist, who collected folklore throughout the South, including stories about survivors of the Lake Okechobee hurricane in the 1920s.

There are certainly biographical elements to the novel, but they are embedded in the story and characters more so than the narrator's voice in my opinion. For example, Hurston wrote the novel in Haiti (while there to collect folklore) after ending a passionate relationship with a much younger man. She also knew what it was to be shunned by your community for being different; note the reaction of Harlem Renaissance authors to her work, especially Richard Wright's searing criticism that this book was simply a minstrel show for the white folks and had no plot, theme, or substance. Listening to the first few pages of the novel read by Ruby Dee brings out the poetic lyricism of Hurston's writing (to hear a 7-minute excerpt, go to the author's official website at http://zoranealehurston.com/books/#their-eyes-were-watching-god). Would my Chicago accent sound like a joke if transcribed faithfully and would you think it came from an educated woman? Probably yes to the first and no to the second.

Some critics classify this story as a Bildungsroman. There are elements of the coming-of-age tale here, but there are many mythical or almost biblical elements, as well. Truly, there is a strong, independent woman depicted in this novel; while the economics and cultural mores of the 30s placed much greater constraints on Janie than they would today, she nonetheless understands that she has great value and she must find people who accept her as she is. It's “their eyes” watching God, not Janie's. Janie is a woman who searches for and is finally able to ensnare the promise of the horizon. And that's a story worth reading.