Their Eyes Were Watching God

It's hard to rate this book. Hurston created great characters that we feel for and an engaging story. And most of the writing is beautiful. But the dialogue is difficult to read and pulls me out of the story.

Take the opening sentences:

“Janie saw her life like a great tree in leaf with the things suffered, things enjoyed, things done and undone. Dawn and doom was in the branches.”

The short novel is full of beautiful, poetic prose like that. But then the characters speak. At the time this was written, it was common for phonetic spelling to be used to show different accents. Hurston dials this up to eleven to the point that I often had to read the dialogue aloud to even know what it said. It's frustrating and breaks the spell of the story. Here's one example:

“It must be uh recess in heben if St. Peter is lettin' his angels out lak dis. You got three men already layin' at de point uh death ‘bout yuh, and heah's uhnother fool dat's willin' tuh make time on yo' gang.”

But overall, it's a powerful and well-written story about complicated love and perseverance of a marginalized black woman in my area of central Florida in the beginning of the 20th century.

Rating: 3.5/5 stars
Rounded down to 3 stars

Absolutely beautiful language and writing! I enjoyed the depiction and sense of black culture among the people. There are many things highlighted in the book, including sexism, racism, internalized racism, elitism, and others. Janie's journey to self-fulfillment, love, and peace was filled with troubles and I enjoyed the ending with her realizing that she had arrived at where she wanted.

I didn't connect with this book as much and, even though it is beautifully written, that causes me to rate it lower. I can recognize its goodness, but it just didn't hit as hard for me as it does for others. Still a good read though

I listened to the audiobook narrated by Ruby Dee, which I highly recommend, but I also had a hard copy to consult (in which the dialect is very difficult to follow at times). As a writer, I could be critical of some craft choices that Hurston made–Janie is telling this story to her friend Phoeby, but the narrative slips out of that frame from time to time–but that would be beside the point. Janie's story is as compelling a story as there is and this book is one of the most powerful you'll ever hope to read.

This was my first audiobook and I absolutely loved it! Ruby Dee narrated with emotion and it sometimes felt like I was in a conversation with the characters. Hurston's book is wonderfully written, the language is often beautiful and poetic. It was a joy to listen to.

This is a classic for a reason; nothing else I say can really do it justice

When I was forced to read this book in a college literature class focusing on heroes in literature, I was super disappointed. Then, when I actually started reading this book, I fell in love with the writing, the characters, and the tragic story of a woman simply looking for happiness but stuck in a lifetime of sorrow. Yet, through it all, the short-lived happiness and true love that she experienced was so perfect, she was able to keep on living. This isn't the most exciting book, but it is an inspiring work of art that will delight many if they take the time to read it.

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.

Re-Read for the Black Classics Book Club hosted by @Loc'D Booktician on Youtube.

This will forever be a 5 star read. The writing is phenomenal and captures the vibe of the times.

This is not a happy story. I do not even find it a story of independence or even one of finding your true self. As simple and as quick of a read this is, it is equally if not more complicated.

This story speaks to:
MisogynyColorism
Closeness to whiteness and white power; how it is desired but if someone else has it you'll do anything to take it away or diminish it Physical abuse and the things humans do to make it ok and move on
Generational norms that inspire discussions on how to evolve now and not later to break those norms so as not to carry them onto the next generationKids should be encouraged to be kids for as long as they can
Coming into one's sexualityLove and what that looks like in different spaces
*Obligatory care of a relative does not equate to love

I do not fault Janie for the decisions she made because she did not know better. I do not fault her because she was not taught to have a voice of her own and was constantly surrounded by people who had thoughts regarding her life all the time. She made choices to leave people or places but where she ended up was not necessarily better than what she had left behind. She still allowed others to mold her into what they felt was most comforting to them. She understood that somethings were happening to her because of power struggles but kept allowing them to happen to appease their souls. In the end, we are not sure if Janie has truly learned from all that she has lived up until that point. In the end I wished her 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.

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/

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