Book Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God

I hadn’t heard of this book until graduate school—I know, right?! It’s a classic! Regardless, a professor recommended that I read it and I committed the title to memory, intending to read it one day.

Their Eyes Were Watching God was the first book on my 2016 Summer Reading List. Written by the brilliant Zora Neale Hurston, the novel follows the journey of Janie Crawford. In chapter 1, she returns home to a small town in Central Florida called Eatonville after being gone for years. She then recounts the journey of her life, remarking on her personal growth and three marriages.

An important passage details Janie’s idealistic view of love and marriage as a teenager. I think it also sets the tone for the reader, showing the arch of her growth over the next few decades.

“She was stretched on her back beneath the pear tree soaking in the alto chant of the visiting bees, the gold of the sun and the panting breath of the breeze when the inaudible voice of it all came to her. She saw a dust-bearing bee sink into the sanctum of a bloom; the thousand sister-calyxes arch to meet the love embrace and the ecstatic shiver of the tree from root to tiniest branch creaming in every blossom and frothing with delight. So this was a marriage! She had been summoned to behold a revelation. Then Janie felt a pain remorseless sweet that left her limp and languid.” Chapter 2, page 15

Stunning language, right?

Pros:

• The novel was published in 1937. Hurston’s book was definitely ahead of its time. The feminist undertones are there and intriguing.
• When I finished the novel, I wanted to know more about Hurston. She grew up in a town much like Eatonville and shares a history and culture that I knew little about. I grew up in Central Florida and knew very little of that history.
• Like I said before, the language is stunning.

Cons:

• I mean, it’s a classic for a reason ya’ll.

 

 

 

 

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