Customer Reviews

MOSES MAN OF MOUNTAIN

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This is a brilliant novel. Hurston retells the story of Moses through the lens of black history and of her own day; the reader can see Hitler in Pharoah, the ghettos of Europe and America in Goshen. The Hebrews of Hurston's tale are European Jews under National Socialism and American Blacks under slavery. Moses becomes in this context a figure of contemporary hope. His being suggests that it's possible for someone to lead those in need of leadership out of trouble and to change the world. (By the way, if you get a chance, take a look at J Kristeva's book "Revolution in Poetic Language.")

Hurston's novel is particularly relevent in today's world of spin politics and soundbites. To read this book is to better understand the news you're stuck with being fed.

In the introduction to this 1939 novel, Hurston says that Africans (and, by extension African Americans) revere Moses "not because of his beard nor because he brought the laws down from Sinai" but "because he had the power to go up the mountain and bring them down. . . . [W]ho can talk with God face to face? Who has the power to command God to go to a peak of mountain and there demand of Him laws with which to govern a nation? . . . That calls for power, and that is what Africa sees in Moses."

Hurston incorporates the African tradition into her retelling of the Exodus story, along with that tradition's humor, colloquialisms, wit, irreverence, and apocryphal embellishments. The result is probably her most accessible work, an undemanding read that still reflects a mirror on such issues as politics, slavery, and feminism. The novel is remarkably faithful to the original, but Hurston's Old Testaments heroes and their adversaries are fleshed out as lethargic, selfish, dithering, conniving, as well as joyous, loving, and (above all) human. Moses's brother Aaron and sister Miriam, for example, are depicted as much a hindrance to the movement as a help.

Moses himself is presented warts and all. As expected, he's the savior who leads a slave nation from captivity to the freedom of a Promised Land, the wise prophet who brings law and government to an unruly and divided people. Still, Hurston's Moses observes that "the first law of Nature is that everybody likes to receive things, but nobody likes to feel grateful. And the very next law is that people talk about tenderness and mercy, but they love force. If you feed a thousand people you are a nice man with suspicious motives. If you kill a thousand you a hero." And Moses does kill--not only Egyptian soldiers hot in pursuit, but 3,000 of his own people: defenseless, drunken revelers paying homage to a golden calf (Exodus 32:28), an unforgiving and ruthless act that never fails to jar modern sensibilities.

It's often a marvel when an author can take a well-known story and make it seem fresh. Cecil B. DeMille 1956 movie has heightened modern-day familiarity to the point of farce (although Hurston's original audience was certainly aware of DeMille's first film version, released in 1923). Nevertheless, Hurston manages to make this timeworn story new again for modern readers.

Now, I admit that I had a hard time getting into this book. The reason...The Ten Commandments! The image of Charlton Heston parting the Red Sea kept playing through my head. I eventually got over it, all due to the narrative that this wonderful author told this story. I found myself captivated. Hurston made Moses human, with human needs and problems. This made his faith more real. Wonderful, I can't praise it enough. Check out Chapter 27, pg. 180 for a famous quote. I couldn't help but to think that Hurston knew more than she was telling. I have the feeling that she forsaw the Civil Rights Movement, some 20 years before it actually happened, this book was published in 1939. Very good!!

To read Moses, Man of the Mountain, is to read the book of Exodus in the Old Testament Bible. Ms Hurston has a wonderfully unique style of presentation. Zora's book of Moses is one of the most entertaining, refreshing approaches of story- telling I've come across in a while, especially in the biblical realm. I was so moved by this book, I went on to read many other works by her, such as "Their eyes were watching God", Jonah's Gourd Vine, etc....I have mentioned to many others of how Moses, Man of the Mountain touched me in so many ways! Zora Nell Hurston indeed appears to have been a woman before her time!.....

A poetic, topical book that puts a contemporary twist on historical and spiritual (and political) issues pertaining to human rights and human potential. Highly recommended. Readers young and old should also pick up Hurston's "Tell My Horse: Voodoo And Life In Haiti And Jamaica."

A good read. Hurston does an excellent job of depicting the parallel experiences of the captivity of the Israelites and the American Slave. In fact, one could argue that the experience of the Israelites is the American Slave experience. This is a great book for high school reading, it provides a variety of cause and effect themes that all young adults need to know; among them, if you oppress a people or person you breed fear, insecurity, and eventual self hatred in that human. I highly recommend Their Eyes Were Watching God another of Hurston's literary jewels. jewels.

This is a wonderfully evocative book of the times of Moses the man. It parallels the awesome "THE Autobiography of Jesus of Nazareth and the Missing Years" by Richard Patton. Both these books create a reality around the historical figures that is sadly lacking in the traditional texts. Both these books are rich food for thought and highly recommended.

This very readable novel takes a unique slant on the stories of the Exodus. It offers a fascinating perspective, both from those already steeped in this ancient story and for those who have never read it.

The books was for a reading group I belong to. It was an ok book, but I had trouble with the "accent" used in the book. I thought it was clever how the author created names for the unnamed and the missing parts of Moses life.

This is a beautifully written telling of the story of Moses leading the Hebrews slaves from Egypt to their freedom. However, it is told from the point of view of the people, and in this case, the people speak in the vernacular of the Black people who lived in the southern United States over fifty years ago.
Zora Neale Thurston brings a different interpretation to the famous story, and yet deals with the philosophies and Biblical details that we are all familiar with.
An excellent book!!