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readersbutterfly's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
A story where Janie’s own terms of love are set and fixed by her and her alone, and in that way it’s revolutionary. Beautifully written, and an ode to the cultural color of the south and its mighty strong women’s wills. It’s a coming of age story as riveting as anything modern. It warmed my heart to read it and know that there was someone as frilly-natured of a writer as me in the 1930s. You’ve got to live to have a life worth loving, and you’ve also got to love to have a life worth living.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Domestic abuse and Gaslighting
Minor: Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Grief, and Murder
ohlhauc's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
This is a classic for a reason. The story follows Janie through three of her relationships as she increasingly finds her voice and power amidst domestic violence, sexist gender norms, and the pursuit of a true love.
It is extremely well-written, scarce but evocative enough to imagine what's happening. The dialogue is also masterful, and makes you feel like you're on the porches with the characters as they banter, gossip, fight, and reflect on their lives. Seeing Janie liberate herself from the worlds she's put in through her three relationships is also inspiring, and her growth through the journey was very emotional.
I highly recommend listening to this as an audiobook if the written dialect is hard for you. The version narrated by Ruby Dee is spectacular.
It is extremely well-written, scarce but evocative enough to imagine what's happening. The dialogue is also masterful, and makes you feel like you're on the porches with the characters as they banter, gossip, fight, and reflect on their lives. Seeing Janie liberate herself from the worlds she's put in through her three relationships is also inspiring, and her growth through the journey was very emotional.
I highly recommend listening to this as an audiobook if the written dialect is hard for you. The version narrated by Ruby Dee is spectacular.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Sexism, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Racism, Rape, and Slavery
Minor: Homophobia
booksthatburn's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
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 many pages covering spans of years where she wasn't steering her life. The sections describing the MC’s realization that her inner life and exterior presentation needed to be separate for her safety and self-preservation is so powerful and insightfully written. The whole book handles misogyny in a way that makes it both unmistakable for what it is but also understandable as something that women (specifically Black women in the USA one to two generations away from slavery) would put up with for their own survival. It has a way of describing a way the world was (and often still is) without making it too stressful to read. The secondary characters (even the ones we're maybe not supposed to like) are written really well and their motivations are understandable even, perhaps especially, when they conflict with the MC.
I'm mostly in awe, at the end of reading this, and I fear that my review feels sparse because of it. It feels steeped in life, soaking it in, as much as it can hold until it can take no more and lets everything out in a roaring wave. There's enough framing that we enter the main narrative with a question of why did the MC come back home after leaving, then the main story is so absorbing on its own merits that we forget about that for a little while. Until, at last, we have the answer and end where we began, with a quiet story told of a long life lived sometimes well, sometimes poorly, that isn't over yet.
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 many pages covering spans of years where she wasn't steering her life. The sections describing the MC’s realization that her inner life and exterior presentation needed to be separate for her safety and self-preservation is so powerful and insightfully written. The whole book handles misogyny in a way that makes it both unmistakable for what it is but also understandable as something that women (specifically Black women in the USA one to two generations away from slavery) would put up with for their own survival. It has a way of describing a way the world was (and often still is) without making it too stressful to read. The secondary characters (even the ones we're maybe not supposed to like) are written really well and their motivations are understandable even, perhaps especially, when they conflict with the MC.
I'm mostly in awe, at the end of reading this, and I fear that my review feels sparse because of it. It feels steeped in life, soaking it in, as much as it can hold until it can take no more and lets everything out in a roaring wave. There's enough framing that we enter the main narrative with a question of why did the MC come back home after leaving, then the main story is so absorbing on its own merits that we forget about that for a little while. Until, at last, we have the answer and end where we began, with a quiet story told of a long life lived sometimes well, sometimes poorly, that isn't over yet.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia, Rape, and Slavery
CW for homophobia (minor), sexism, racism, racial slurs, slavery (backstory), rape (backstory), animal death, domestic abuse, domestic violence, violence, major character death.