Reviews with content warning for Violence - Their Eyes Were Watching God

Great read. I was surprised by the lyricism— this book is endlessly quotable and beautifully written. The plot and the characters were both fine, but the writing style really elevated everything. And actually some of the side characters did really jump off of the page.

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ilsota_77's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Honestly, I went into this book not knowing much about it since I had to read it for school but I truly enjoyed it. Zora's writing style is beautiful and the way she builds a strong main character. Zora shows us everything in Janie's (main character) life that led for her to become the woman she is and how our experiences affect our development.

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jeljh98's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

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tracey1981's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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hnnh_bug's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The book is a very difficult read. Not only for its subject matter, but all dialogue is written phonetically to help emulate the southern accents of the characters. Although it's a short book, be prepared to slow down because it's not one you can speed read through.

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plumtree's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional inspiring reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

Unforgettable. When a friend recently asked me what books I had read that had changed my worldview, shook me to my core, this was the first one that came to mind.

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ceallaighsbooks's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

“She didn’t read books so she didn’t know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.”

TITLE—Their Eyes Were Watching God

AUTHOR—Zora Neale Hurston

PUBLISHED—1937

GENRE—literary fiction

SETTING—early 20th c. southern United States

MAIN THEMES/SUBJECTS—LOVE, identity & self fulfillment, Black women, feminism, Black American history, culture, mythology, folklore, folktales, songs & games

WRITING STYLE—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

CHARACTERS—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

PLOT—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

BONUS ELEMENT/S—😭😭😭😭😭😭; a gorgeous and subtle fairy and folktale feel to the story

PHILOSOPHY—⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

“No hour is ever eternity, but it has its right to weep.”

Alright well I’m just going to accept that I won’t be able to do this book justice and try to write something anyway. 😅 Ok I went into this book not knowing really anything about it. I did read Mules and Men first though so I had an idea what to expect from Hurston’s writing style and themes etc. I loved that she continued to write in dialect and that she used a lot of themes from the folktales of her Mules and Men collection—including the whole “loose call and response style” (p.xii) that the novel is written in. I also particularly loved the story about the mule and the vultures’ funeral rites.

The character of Janie though was what most surprised and delighted me about this book. And now I’m getting emotional so let’s see how I can word this. 😅 Janie was both a sort of everywoman character as well as a larger than life, warrior for love sort of character—both highly relatable but also hugely inspirational. In her forward to the text, Edwidge Danticat writes that “Janie did not have to be a role model at all. She simply had to be a fully realized and complex character.” And I get what Danticat is saying, that Janie’s innate personhood and her insistence on her own autonomy and the freedom to make her own choices was what made her such a powerful character, regardless of how things “turned out” for her, but in the end, I did see her as something of a role model *because* of who she insisted on being and the choices she fought to be able to make for herself. (Ok and now I’m tearing up. 😢🙈)

“Ah’m born but Ah ain’t dead. No tellin’ whut Ah’m liable tuh do yet.”

The last thing I’ll say is that the love story that is the second half of this book *will* break your heart into a zillion pieces. “He kin take most any lil thing and make summertime out of it when times is dull. Then we lives offa dat happiness he made till some mo’ happiness come along.” And especially when you come to the part that reveals why the book is called “Their Eyes Were Watching God” and ok now I can’t see the screen through my tears so gonna wrap it up here. 😢😢 (Also this is another part that did me in: “A man is up against a hard game when he must die to beat it.” 😭😭) Anyway, this is one of the best books that I have ever read and I am absolutely on a mission to read Hurston’s entire bibliography and probably revisiting this one sooner rather than later.

“She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

TW // Disclaimer: I went in not knowing almost anything about this book including CWs and it allowed me to have one of the most profound reading experiences of my life so if you can—definitely do that! If you have any questions or concerns please feel free to message me! Non-spoilery CWs: slavery, violence, misogyny, racism/colorism (graphic language), rape (brief mention), domestic violence (minor depiction, unsettling language), & others but they’re *very* spoilery so please DM me to ask for specifics!

Further Reading—

Mules and Men, by Zora Neale Hurston
everything else by Zora Neale Hurston, especially Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick, and Tell My Horse, and Dust Tracks on a Road—TBR
Beloved, by Toni Morrison—TBR
The Color Purple, by Alice Walker—TBR
Love Medicine, by Louise Erdrich—TBR
The Song of Achilles, by Madeline Miller—just because it was that epic kind of love story that sticks with you long after you’ve finished reading…

Favorite Quotes…

“Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board.”

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.”

“…bein’ uh fool don’t kill nobody. It jus’ makes you sweat.”

The whole section about the mule. pp 68-69

the buzzard funeral pp 72-73

“She didn’t read books so she didn’t know that she was the world and the heavens boiled down to a drop.”

“Ah’m born but Ah ain’t dead. No tellin’ whut Ah’m liable tuh do yet.”

“She had waited all her life for something, and it had killed her when it found her.”

“You’se something tuh make uh man forgit tuh git old and forgit tuh die.”

“He kin take most any lil thing and make summertime out of it when times is dull. Then we lives offa dat happiness he made till some mo’ happiness come along.”

“Like the pecking-order in a chicken yard. Insensate cruelty to those you can whip, and groveling submission to those you can’t.”

“If Ah never see you no mo’ on earth, Ah’ll meet you in Africa.”

“If you kin see de light at daybreak, you don’t keer if you die at dusk. It’s so many people never seen de light at all.”

“They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God.”

“Folks wuz makin’ weeks befo’ you wuz born and they gointuh be makin’ ‘em after you’se gone.” (meaning you can take the day off when you’re sick)

“Was He noticing what was going on around here? He must be because He knew everything.”

“No hour is ever eternity, but it has its right to weep.”

“They were there with their tongues cocked and loaded, the only real weapon left to weak folks.”

“A man is up against a hard game when he must die to beat it.”

“She was too busy feeling grief to dress like grief.”

“Now, Pheoby, don’t feel too mean wid de rest of ‘em ‘cause dey’s parched up from not known’ things… It’s uh known fact, Pheoby, you got tuh go there tuh know there. Yo’ papa and yo’ mama and nobody else can’t tell yuh and show yuh. Two things everybody’s got tuh do fuh theyselves. They got tuh go tuh God, and they got tuh find out about livin’ fuh theyselves.”

“Of course he wasn’t dead. He could never be dead until she herself had finished feeling and thinking. The kiss of his memory made pictures of love and light against the wall. Here was peace. She pulled in her horizon like a great fish-net. Pulled it from around the waist of the world and draped it over her shoulder. So much of life in its meshes! She called in her soul to come and see.”

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