paperback, 96 pages
Published Feb. 4, 2014 by SparkNotes.
I loved Jonah's Gourd Vine -- thought some of her short stories very fine -- and feel that this measures up to the promise of the early books. Authentic picture of Negroes, not in relation to white people but to each other. An ageing grandmother marries off her granddaughter almost a child to a middle-aged man for security -- and she leaves him when she finds that her dreams are dying, and goes off with a dapper young Negro, full of his own sense of power and go-getter qualities. He takes her to a mushroom town, buys a lot, puts up a store and makes the town sit up and take notice. His success goes to his head -- their life becomes a mockery of her high hopes. And after his death, she goes off with a youth who brings her happiness and tragedy. A poignant story, told with almost …
I loved Jonah's Gourd Vine -- thought some of her short stories very fine -- and feel that this measures up to the promise of the early books. Authentic picture of Negroes, not in relation to white people but to each other. An ageing grandmother marries off her granddaughter almost a child to a middle-aged man for security -- and she leaves him when she finds that her dreams are dying, and goes off with a dapper young Negro, full of his own sense of power and go-getter qualities. He takes her to a mushroom town, buys a lot, puts up a store and makes the town sit up and take notice. His success goes to his head -- their life becomes a mockery of her high hopes. And after his death, she goes off with a youth who brings her happiness and tragedy. A poignant story, told with almost rhythmic beauty.
Note from Kirkus' Vintage Review Editor: Zora Neale Hurston is now thought of as a pioneering writer and folklorist, but in 1937, when Kirkus reviewed her now-classic Their Eyes Were Watching God, she was a writer becoming known for revealing a corner of the world no one but she could've revealed. — June 24, 2013
Exquisite. I loved every page, even the ones I hated. What an ability to observe and depict human needs. What incredible beautiful puttogethering of words.
Powerful.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is a quiet story of one Black woman's life two generations out from slavery, trying to be happy and find a life she'd like to live.
This book is the story of a life, the MC's life, and the relationships she has beginning as a young woman until she's in her forties or fifties. The narration is full of care, gently stepping in every once in a while when what the MC is thinking goes beyond what she feels safe to say (or even is ready to think).
I love how the MC is handled, especially the way the book covers a very long period of time by focusing in on the decision points, the times where the level of agency expressed by the MC is changing in some way. It keeps the focus on her and her choices rather that subjecting the reader to …
This is more a three and a half star review. The climax is incredibly done and the romance is memorable, but the pacing was a bit slow at times.
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.
Well, its a classic, right, so you have to love it. Well, maybe. Was it a feminist novel, or a black one? Is it great literature? Did it have to have been written in dialect? (Bruce says that the speech and the characters were true to what he remembers of the south of his youth.) Why does it resonate so deeply with young materialistic women of the present day?
