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saffyq's review against another edition
5.0
zora neal hurston is one of the best writers i’ve ever read. everyone should read this book. astonishing and achingly beautiful.
p_t_b's review against another edition
5.0
somehow i never had to read this for school and i think in my twenties i maybe couldn't say for sure whether this was by ZNH or willa cather. anyway i got onside eventually. the idea that hurston wasn't always canonical hurts my brain. this is a stubbornly weird, lyrical novel about a woman coming into herself, not entirely of her own understanding or explicit intention, after marrying. basically middlemarch but in early 20th century AAVE and like 1/10th as long and with more rabies and hurricanes. i never want to say ppl gotta read a book but you should probably read this, or not, i respect your autonomy
"she left the porch pelting her back with unasked questions"
"Yes indeed. You know if you pass some people and don't speak tuh suit 'em dey got to go way back in yo' life and see what you ever done. They know mo' bout yuh than you do yo' self. An envious heart makes a treacherous ear."
"So long as they get a name to gnaw on they don't care whose it is, and what about, 'specially if they can make it sound like evil."
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.
Dey made it sound real bad so as to crumple mah feathers
night time put on flesh and blackness
Waiting for the world to be made
Nanny's words made Janie's kiss across the gatepost seem like a manure pile after a rain
"mule of the world"
de day and de hour is hid from me
Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments rolls on a few days longer
feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart
Ah had too many feelin's tuh tell which one tuh follow
There are years that ask questions and years that answer
There is basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.
She turned wrongside out just standing there and feeling.
"too previous" as in "too early"
You can't get her wid no fish sandwich
Man, dese white folks got ways for tellin' anything dey wants tuh know"
She didn't read books so she didn't know she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.
Is he bad 'bout totin' pistols and knives tuh hurt people wid?
Ah'm born but Ah ain't dead No tellin' whut Ah'm liable tuh do yet
[marriage] always changes folks, and sometimes it brings out dirt and meanness dat even de person didn't know they had in 'em theyselves.
tell me, what post office did you ever pee in
Janie looked down on [Tea Cake] and felt a self-crushing love.
their souls asking if He meant to measure teir puny might against His. They seemed to be taring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.
worry they guts into fiddle strings
you got tuh go there tuh know thereq
"she left the porch pelting her back with unasked questions"
"Yes indeed. You know if you pass some people and don't speak tuh suit 'em dey got to go way back in yo' life and see what you ever done. They know mo' bout yuh than you do yo' self. An envious heart makes a treacherous ear."
"So long as they get a name to gnaw on they don't care whose it is, and what about, 'specially if they can make it sound like evil."
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.
Dey made it sound real bad so as to crumple mah feathers
night time put on flesh and blackness
Waiting for the world to be made
Nanny's words made Janie's kiss across the gatepost seem like a manure pile after a rain
"mule of the world"
de day and de hour is hid from me
Mah daily prayer now is tuh let dese golden moments rolls on a few days longer
feelings dragged out dramas from the hollows of her heart
Ah had too many feelin's tuh tell which one tuh follow
There are years that ask questions and years that answer
There is basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.
She turned wrongside out just standing there and feeling.
"too previous" as in "too early"
You can't get her wid no fish sandwich
Man, dese white folks got ways for tellin' anything dey wants tuh know"
She didn't read books so she didn't know she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.
Is he bad 'bout totin' pistols and knives tuh hurt people wid?
Ah'm born but Ah ain't dead No tellin' whut Ah'm liable tuh do yet
[marriage] always changes folks, and sometimes it brings out dirt and meanness dat even de person didn't know they had in 'em theyselves.
tell me, what post office did you ever pee in
Janie looked down on [Tea Cake] and felt a self-crushing love.
their souls asking if He meant to measure teir puny might against His. They seemed to be taring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.
worry they guts into fiddle strings
you got tuh go there tuh know thereq
same_ol_gia's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
lavendermarch's review against another edition
3.0
Eh. Read for school. Not bad. The cool part was when Tea Cake got rabies.
onmalsshelf's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
kaynova's review against another edition
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Racism
jcoryv's review against another edition
5.0
Listened to this on Audible. Narration was excellent.
A simple story well told.
A simple story well told.
andreeadicu's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
thaurisil's review against another edition
4.0
Janie Crawford, a mixed-race girl, is raced by her grandmother after her mother runs off. Her grandmother marries her off to Logan Killicks, a man with sufficient land to provide Janie with security. He however does not love her, and Janie runs off with Joe Starks, an ambitious man who becomes the mayor of a new all-Black town, Eatonville. Despite being rich and respected, Janie feels stifled, and her marriage to Joe is loveless. She humiliates him one day, before Joe dies of kidney failure. After his death, Janie feels free for the first time in years. She meets Tea Cake, a man with little money, but who genuinely enjoys time with her, respects her enough to teach her checkers and bring her fishing, and, despite his poverty, works hard to make ends meet. They get married and move to Everglades, where they work during the harvest season. Despite some difficulties, their love flourishes. After two years, a hurricane destroys Everglades. While escaping the waters, Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog. He falls ills three weeks later, and as he grows increasingly mad, he tries to shoot Janie. Janie ends up killing him in self-defence, is tried for murder, and found not guilty. She returns to Eatonville where she tells her story to her best friend Pheoby.
These are the opening lines of this book, and in them, they capture the lyrical, dense quality of Hurston's writing, and the rich, imaginative, emotive imagery. I looked forward to these passages, rolling them around in my mouth and my mind, savouring their lushness. The other voice that Hurston uses is the voice of the people speaking in their Black accent. This other voice can be difficult to read on paper, and is best understood when spoken out loud. Some use audiobooks, but I read these parts out loud, contributing to the longer-than-expected reading time of a relatively short book.
Hurston skilfully fits Janie's three marriages and transformation from an awkward teenager to a middle-aged woman who has found her self in a short novel of slightly over 200 pages. Janie is raised by her grandmother, who was born in the time of slavery, but Janie herself lives in an era where Blacks are finding independence and new ways of asserting freedom. Janie reflects on this by saying of her grandmother, "She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn't sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin' on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat's what she wanted for me–don't keer whut it cost. Git up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn't have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin'. De object wuz tut git dere. So Ah got up on de high stool lak she told me, Pheoby, Ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere. Ah felt like de world wuz cryin' extry and Ah ain't read de common news yet."
Janie gets herself into a privileged position as the wife of a mayor, but finds herself having to live in an imaginary world in order to escape from the chains of her life. She finds true freedom in overalls, planting beans, and loving a man who truly cares for her and spends $200 on a whim to organise celebrations with friends. In learning to love, Janie finds her life, and becomes someone truly worthy of the love that she is given.
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time. That is the life of men.
Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
These are the opening lines of this book, and in them, they capture the lyrical, dense quality of Hurston's writing, and the rich, imaginative, emotive imagery. I looked forward to these passages, rolling them around in my mouth and my mind, savouring their lushness. The other voice that Hurston uses is the voice of the people speaking in their Black accent. This other voice can be difficult to read on paper, and is best understood when spoken out loud. Some use audiobooks, but I read these parts out loud, contributing to the longer-than-expected reading time of a relatively short book.
Hurston skilfully fits Janie's three marriages and transformation from an awkward teenager to a middle-aged woman who has found her self in a short novel of slightly over 200 pages. Janie is raised by her grandmother, who was born in the time of slavery, but Janie herself lives in an era where Blacks are finding independence and new ways of asserting freedom. Janie reflects on this by saying of her grandmother, "She was borned in slavery time when folks, dat is black folks, didn't sit down anytime dey felt lak it. So sittin' on porches lak de white madam looked lak uh mighty fine thing tuh her. Dat's what she wanted for me–don't keer whut it cost. Git up on uh high chair and sit dere. She didn't have time tuh think whut tuh do after you got up on de stool uh do nothin'. De object wuz tut git dere. So Ah got up on de high stool lak she told me, Pheoby, Ah done nearly languished tuh death up dere. Ah felt like de world wuz cryin' extry and Ah ain't read de common news yet."
Janie gets herself into a privileged position as the wife of a mayor, but finds herself having to live in an imaginary world in order to escape from the chains of her life. She finds true freedom in overalls, planting beans, and loving a man who truly cares for her and spends $200 on a whim to organise celebrations with friends. In learning to love, Janie finds her life, and becomes someone truly worthy of the love that she is given.
kessler21's review against another edition
2.0
This is has been discussed recently. I listened to the audio book so the dialect wasn't an issue thought it could be for those that read the book.
I do not feel Hurston is a good story teller. The dialog was frequent and real. That is a great talent as many main stream authors lack in the dialog department I also liked the imagery in Hurston writing but the story as a whole felt lacking.
I do not feel Hurston is a good story teller. The dialog was frequent and real. That is a great talent as many main stream authors lack in the dialog department I also liked the imagery in Hurston writing but the story as a whole felt lacking.