Fiction Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God

Book By Book

I recently read Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston for the first time, a perfect choice for Black History Month. I never read anything by Hurston in school. Now that I think about it, I don’t think we read any books by Black authors in high school! That was the 70′s/80′s; I know my sons’ literature curriculum was much more diverse, thank goodness. This classic novel, published in 1937, was an absolute delight, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

As the novel opens, a woman named Janie walks through a town at sunset. Because of the time of day, everyone is out on their porches and watches as she walks by, gossiping about where she’s been and what she’s done. Jamie has been gone for a year and a half, and from the gossipers, we know that she left town in a fancy blue dress with a younger man in a car, and she is returning alone in muddy overalls and a ratty shirt, barefoot. As Janie reaches her own home, her best friend, Pheoby, greets her with a dish of food. Janie gratefully gulps down the dinner, starving, and then tells Pheoby her story: not just the story of the last year and a half, but her whole life story. She begins with her earliest days as a child, brought up by her grandmother without a mother or father, and continues through to this evening and how she came to be returning to town in such a bedraggled condition. The rest of the novel is her story.

That’s the framework of the novel, Janie telling Pheoby her story. I don’t want to disclose any more of Janie’s story here because it is riveting to read as it slowly unwinds. That was one of the surprises I encountered in this book: just how gripping the plot was. A lot happens to Janie, and she lives a full life, with plenty of ups and downs between her grandmother’s home and returning to her own front porch this evening. The other surprise was the language and the writing itself. The dialogue is all written in the Black dialect of Florida in the 1930′s, and I had heard it was difficult to read. It did take a little getting used to, but I soon adjusted to the rhythm and cadence of their speech, sort of hearing it in my mind as I read. The surprise was how much fun Hurston has with the language, especially with the unique similes and metaphors the characters use, like “Speakin’ of winds, he’s de wind, and we’se de grass. We bend whichever way he blows.” Characters’ mutual teasing on the front porch of the general store is clever and often laugh-out-loud funny. Many beautifully written passages are also very thoughtful:

“The spirit of marriage left the bedroom and took to living in the parlor. It was there to shake hands whenever company came to visit, but it never went back inside the bedroom again.”

This novel was unique at the time–and for many decades after–for describing ordinary Black lives. Its focus is not on slavery or discrimination (though some of that is along the edges of the story) but just people living and loving, with joys and sorrows. In fact, much of it takes place in an entirely Black town in Florida, the first of its kind and a real place. I finished this book almost three weeks ago, but I still find myself thinking about it. I’ll add it to our shelves of classics, and I have no doubt I will read this moving, delightful novel again.

193 pages, Amistad

This book fits in the following 2023 Reading Challenges:

Mount TBR

My own Classics Challenge (the one I usually do stopped this year) – a classic by a BIPOC author

Alphabet Soup – T

Diversity Challenge

Literary Escapes – Florida

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Listen to a sample of the audiobook here, beautiful read by actress Ruby Dee, and/or download it from Audible.  The sample is from the beginning of the book, as Janie walks back into town, and her neighbors gossip. It sounds wonderful on audio!

You can buy the book through Bookshop.org, where your purchase will support the indie bookstore of your choice (or all indie bookstores)–the convenience of shopping online while still buying local!

Or you can order Their Eyes Were Watching God from Book Depository, with free shipping worldwide.