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jennieleigh's review against another edition
3.0
Loved the first 2/3s but really lost interest in the end when it got overly philosophical.
ctb23's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
5.0
It provides a look into her childhood.
brighroosh's review against another edition
4.0
Hurston covers a lot of ground in her autobiography! Her early life in Eatonville, then being on her own at 14, always trying to go to school. Traveling with actors; getting into Howard, then Barnard. Her "Godmother" who was her patron and who made it possible for her to study "Negro" culture in the South. Passing trials by a Southern witch doctor in a swamp, somehow avoiding harm.
Putting on a show with Bahamian music and dance. Going to Jamaica to study Voodoo.
Her prose uses simple words in imaginative ways that I enjoyed.
I got a bit annoyed reading the appendices - she was rehashing things that were in the body of the book. But I suppose that if looked at in the sense that she was "finding her voice," then the repetitious philosophizing was her journey to her final opinions on race and racism. I gathered that she felt that people should not be categorized, but treated as individuals. She basically provided her thesis about it.
The afterward by Louis Gates Jr is illuminating, as is the American Experience documentary: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space.
Putting on a show with Bahamian music and dance. Going to Jamaica to study Voodoo.
Her prose uses simple words in imaginative ways that I enjoyed.
I got a bit annoyed reading the appendices - she was rehashing things that were in the body of the book. But I suppose that if looked at in the sense that she was "finding her voice," then the repetitious philosophizing was her journey to her final opinions on race and racism. I gathered that she felt that people should not be categorized, but treated as individuals. She basically provided her thesis about it.
The afterward by Louis Gates Jr is illuminating, as is the American Experience documentary: Zora Neale Hurston: Claiming a Space.
katharina90's review against another edition
challenging
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
Basically a collection of stories from Hurston's life. I think her love for storytelling shines through, but it's emotionally detached and anything but a raw, vulnerable memoir.
From what I've read, the truthfulness of her memoir has also been questioned. Reading this book definitely didn't give me a sense of who Hurston really was.
Some of the views she expressed seemed odd to me or were outright contradictory.
From what I've read, the truthfulness of her memoir has also been questioned. Reading this book definitely didn't give me a sense of who Hurston really was.
Some of the views she expressed seemed odd to me or were outright contradictory.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent
Minor: Ableism and Slavery
lori85's review against another edition
3.0
I have read Their Eyes Were Watching God twice (first on my own, second for a book club) and saw that saccharine Oprah movie starring Halle Berry. Learning about Hurston's life illuminated quite a bit of it, starting with Eatonville, Florida, America's first all-black incorporated township and main setting for Watching God. Dust Tracks on a Road opens with the history of its founding in the 1880s by the black citizens of the Town of Maitland (itself founded only a decade previous by two former Union officers). Hurston grew up there and her father even served as its mayor for a time. Today, Eatonville stages a Zora Neale Hurston Festival of the Arts and Humanities each winter. (Actually, Zora claims in Dust Tracks that she was born in Eatonville but that that is not true - she is a native of Alabama.)
Zora's mother died when she was thirteen. Her father quickly remarried a real-life Evil Stepmother who more or less kicked his eight children out of the family home and stopped paying Zora's school tuition which resulted in her expulsion. (Years later, Hurston would come close to killing her in a fistfight.) Drifting from one domestic job to another, Zora eventually fell in with a traveling theater company, working as a personal assistant to a young white soprano. When she finally returned to high school she was twenty-six but somehow successfully posed as a sixteen-year-old girl. She would maintain the facade all her life, claiming to have been born in 1901 instead of 1891. She naturally presents herself as a typical teenaged student in Dust Tracks in the Road, even going as far as to brag about her and her female classmates' stealing of college boys for dances.
Zora attended Howard University and then transferred to Barnard College, a women's school where she was the only black student. She was thirty-six when she received her B.A. in Anthropology. Working with Franz Boas of Columbia University, she traveled extensively throughout the American South and Caribbean collecting black folklore and participating in local religious ceremonies. The recollections of her years in the field are vivid and closely tied to her portrayal of rural African-American life in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Among the backwaters of Polk County, Florida she became acquainted with the lively but dangerous world of itinerant laborers and was nearly killed in a saw-mill jook by the jealous lover of one of her male sources. Luckily, Hurston had had the foresight to befriend one Big Sweet, a formidable woman who knew her way around a knife fight, and lived to tell the tale.
Hurston would later attract considerable controversy for her views on segregation and Brown v. the Board of Education. Specifically: she supported the former and denounced the latter. Her reasoning was that living apart had allowed African-Americans to build up their own societies, their own language, and their own music, all of which she loved and which formed the basis of her fiction. Inspired by her research, Hurston was also instrumental in bringing authentic gospel singing to the New York stage. Still, despite their foundation in a deep knowledge and appreciation for African-American culture, Hurston's views in this regard are unfortunate.
Read more.
Zora's mother died when she was thirteen. Her father quickly remarried a real-life Evil Stepmother who more or less kicked his eight children out of the family home and stopped paying Zora's school tuition which resulted in her expulsion. (Years later, Hurston would come close to killing her in a fistfight.) Drifting from one domestic job to another, Zora eventually fell in with a traveling theater company, working as a personal assistant to a young white soprano. When she finally returned to high school she was twenty-six but somehow successfully posed as a sixteen-year-old girl. She would maintain the facade all her life, claiming to have been born in 1901 instead of 1891. She naturally presents herself as a typical teenaged student in Dust Tracks in the Road, even going as far as to brag about her and her female classmates' stealing of college boys for dances.
Zora attended Howard University and then transferred to Barnard College, a women's school where she was the only black student. She was thirty-six when she received her B.A. in Anthropology. Working with Franz Boas of Columbia University, she traveled extensively throughout the American South and Caribbean collecting black folklore and participating in local religious ceremonies. The recollections of her years in the field are vivid and closely tied to her portrayal of rural African-American life in Their Eyes Were Watching God. Among the backwaters of Polk County, Florida she became acquainted with the lively but dangerous world of itinerant laborers and was nearly killed in a saw-mill jook by the jealous lover of one of her male sources. Luckily, Hurston had had the foresight to befriend one Big Sweet, a formidable woman who knew her way around a knife fight, and lived to tell the tale.
Hurston would later attract considerable controversy for her views on segregation and Brown v. the Board of Education. Specifically: she supported the former and denounced the latter. Her reasoning was that living apart had allowed African-Americans to build up their own societies, their own language, and their own music, all of which she loved and which formed the basis of her fiction. Inspired by her research, Hurston was also instrumental in bringing authentic gospel singing to the New York stage. Still, despite their foundation in a deep knowledge and appreciation for African-American culture, Hurston's views in this regard are unfortunate.
Read more.
shoshin's review
funny
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I've never read any of Zora Neale Hirston's books and did not intentionally start with her Memoir. I didn't know what the book was when I picked it up. I'm glad I did because it gave me a good picture of where she was coming from in life.
I enjoyed it and learned a lot, but it was somewhat meandering and repetitive. Needed better editing, I felt.
Bahni Turpin's reading was fantastic as always.
I enjoyed it and learned a lot, but it was somewhat meandering and repetitive. Needed better editing, I felt.
Bahni Turpin's reading was fantastic as always.
alysses's review against another edition
5.0
This is the FIRST book you should read. This was phenomenal.
I suggest listening to the audiobook or doing a hybrid read.
I will definitely read this again.
I suggest listening to the audiobook or doing a hybrid read.
I will definitely read this again.
archiebb's review against another edition
funny
slow-paced
The first half of this describes more of her growing up and as a young adult and WOW can she tell a story. I was so engaged. I was already planning on re-reading it. No one writes like Zora!
The second half of the book was a bit harder because she describes her relationship with a man she loved (she based the love story in Their Eyes Were Watching God on herself) and it’s very very abusive. Like he was incredibly abusive and she describes it as if that is the greatest love of all. Soured the book for me and I only slowly picked it up after that (not her fault just really hard to read).
Hurston describes herself as very influential in the music scene and I’d really like to learn more about that! She also has interesting takes on religion.
I don’t know what her politics were, she does have a chapter that rings similarly of color blindness (not “holding the sons of slave masters responsible” etc). It makes me wonder what kinds of conversations she was responding to when she wrote this kind of thing.
I couldn’t bring myself to fully finish the book after the abuse bit so I stopped around 85% and just counted it done.
The second half of the book was a bit harder because she describes her relationship with a man she loved (she based the love story in Their Eyes Were Watching God on herself) and it’s very very abusive. Like he was incredibly abusive and she describes it as if that is the greatest love of all. Soured the book for me and I only slowly picked it up after that (not her fault just really hard to read).
Hurston describes herself as very influential in the music scene and I’d really like to learn more about that! She also has interesting takes on religion.
I don’t know what her politics were, she does have a chapter that rings similarly of color blindness (not “holding the sons of slave masters responsible” etc). It makes me wonder what kinds of conversations she was responding to when she wrote this kind of thing.
I couldn’t bring myself to fully finish the book after the abuse bit so I stopped around 85% and just counted it done.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, and Physical abuse