Product Description

One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston's beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose. A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published -- perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2000 in Books
• Published on: 2006-06-01
• Released on: 2006-05-30
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amazon.com Review
At the height of the Harlem Renaissance during the 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston was the preeminent black woman writer in the United States. She was a sometime-collaborator with Langston Hughes and a fierce rival of Richard Wright. Her stories appeared in major magazines, she consulted on Hollywood screenplays, and she penned four novels, an autobiography, countless essays, and two books on black mythology. Yet by the late 1950s, Hurston was living in obscurity, working as a maid in a Florida hotel. She died in 1960 in a Welfare home, was buried in an unmarked grave, and quickly faded from literary consciousness until 1975 when Alice Walker almost single-handedly revived interest in her work.

Of Hurston's fiction, Their Eyes Were Watching God is arguably the best-known and perhaps the most controversial. The novel follows the fortunes of Janie Crawford, a woman living in the black town of Eaton, Florida. Hurston sets up her characters and her locale in the first chapter, which, along with the last, acts as a framing device for the story of Janie's life. Unlike Wright and Ralph Ellison, Hurston does not write explicitly about black people in the context of a white world--a fact that earned her scathing criticism from the social realists--but she doesn't ignore the impact of black-white relations either:

It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgment.

One person the citizens of Eaton are inclined to judge is Janie Crawford, who has married three men and been tried for the murder of one of them. Janie feels no compulsion to justify herself to the town, but she does explain herself to her friend, Phoeby, with the implicit understanding that Phoeby can "tell 'em what Ah say if you wants to. Dat's just de same as me 'cause mah tongue is in mah friend's mouf."

Hurston's use of dialect enraged other African American writers such as Wright, who accused her of pandering to white readers by giving them the black stereotypes they expected. Decades later, however, outrage has been replaced by admiration for her depictions of black life, and especially the lives of black women. In Their Eyes Were Watching God Zora Neale Hurston breathes humanity into both her men and women, and allows them to speak in their own voices. --Alix Wilber

From AudioFile
Nora Zeale Hurston's notable story comes to life through Ruby Dee's fine interpretation. The story of Janie Crawford, her strength and gentleness, was written to be heard. Dee's deep, melodic tones enliven Hurston's evocative prose and powerful images. The colorful characters, Janie's three husbands, Mr. Killicks, Mayor Starks and Tea Cake, her friend Phoeby, and so many others emerge through Dee's strong command of dialogue and her mastery of dialect. She conveys Hurston's sense of drama and spiritual strength in a dynamic program. For readers who know Hurston's work, this program will be a joy, for those who are lucky and wise enough to discover her here, it will be an exceptional experience. R.F.W. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award winner (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Review
"There is no book more important to me than this one." -- Alice WalkerA

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Customer Reviews

Among the Most Influential African-American Novels of the 20th Century
In Their Eyes Were Watching God, middle-aged narrator Janie Crawford tells the story of her life to date. Janie was raised by her former-slave grandmother, who pushed Janie into a life of quiet conventionality as a farmer's wife. Unsatisfied, however, when a man with big dreams comes along, Janie flees. Despite the promises she was given, Janie is again pushed into a life of quiet, albeit more comfortable, conventionality as the wife of a small town shopowner and mayor. When her second husband dies, Janie is left self-sufficient and free to choose the direction of her life. She decides to marry a drifter named Tea Cake for love. With Tea Cake she leaves the town that made her wealthy and heads to Florida. Here she lives a happy and almost pastoral life as a field worker until fate deals her a devastating blow.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is among the most influential African American novels of the 20th century. Though not uncontroversial, the novel deserves its plaudits. Zora Neale Hurston powerfully examines the self-realization of an increasingly free black woman, and the societal, both black and white, reaction to her and her choices. Both profoundly tragic and encouraging, the novel announces African-American literature's independence and a new black vigor to 1930's America - a time and literature whose importance to the civil rights movement has often been underrated. Some readers may find Hurston's use of dialect off-putting or confusing.

Dreamy little novel
I still think fondly of this book, all the way back to high school. This is one of those incredible literary experiences that stays with you whether you loved it or hated it, and frankly I quite liked it.

The writing is deep, descriptive, and powerful, focused so much on the world around, nature.

The story, however, is deeply personal and rather feminist, that of a girl who is simply trying to be herself and find out who she is. This leads to various bad marriages until she finds her true love.

Throughout is thought-provoking words on nature, mankind, and the role of women in society.

It's heartbreaking, but also powerful and poignant.

Complete garbage...don't waste your time
This book sucked. Richard Wright was correct when he stated that Zora Neale Hurston pandered to white prejudiced readers. The way Hurston's black characters speak in this book portrays African Americans as stupid, easily fooled, and naive. The story was boring, pointless, and poorly written. The book, in short, was unbelievably bad, and if it weren't for I school assignment, I wouldn't have wasted time and money reading this bilge.