Their Eyes Were Watching God [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

Zora Neale Hurston (Author)

Book Description

Release date: May 30, 2006

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie Smith

One of the most important and enduring books of the twentieth century, Their Eyes Were Watching God brings to life a Southern love story with the wit and pathos found only in the writing of Zora Neale Hurston. Out of print for almost thirty years—due largely to initial audiences’ rejection of its strong black female protagonist—Hurston’s classic has since its 1978 reissue become perhaps the most widely read and highly acclaimed novel in the canon of African-American literature.

Editorial Reviews

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 --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

'For me, Their eyes were watching God is one of the very greatest American novels of the 20th century. It is so lyrical it should be sentimental; it is so passionate it should be overwrought, but it is instead a rigorous, convincing and dazzling piece of prose, as emotionally satisfying as it is impressive. There is no novel I love more' Zadie Smith --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial Modern Classics; 1 edition (May 30, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061120065
• ISBN-13: 978-0061120060
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (578 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #403 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #31 in Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American
  • #43 in Books > Literature & Fiction > Classics

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

287 of 300 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Probably Hurston's greatest gift to world literature September 23, 2001

By Michael J. Mazza HALL OF FAME

Format:Paperback

"There Eyes Were Watching God," by Zora Neale Hurston, is widely acknowledged as a beloved classic of American literature. This novel is truly one of those great works that remains both entertaining and deeply moving; it is a book for classrooms, for reading groups of all types, and for individual readers.

In "There Eyes," Hurston tells the life story of Janie, an African-American woman. We accompany Janie as she experiences the very different men in her life. Hurston's great dialogue captures both the ongoing "war of the sexes," as well as the truces, joys, and tender moments of male-female relations. But equally important are Janie's relationships with other Black women. There are powerful themes of female bonding, identity, and empowerment which bring an added dimension to this book.

But what really elevates "Their Eyes" to the level of a great classic is Hurston's use of language. This is truly one of the most poetic novels in the American canon. Hurston blends the engaging vernacular speech of her African-American characters with the lovely "standard" English of her narrator, and in both modes creates lines that are just beautiful.

"Their Eyes" captures the universal experiences of pain and happiness, love and loss. And the whole story is told with both humor and compassion. If you haven't read it yet, read it; if you've already read it, read it again.

105 of 109 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An American Masterpiece, well worth reading October 17, 2007

By Joanna Daneman #1 HALL OF FAMETOP 10 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

"Their Eyes were Watching God" has been variously described as feminist literature (though written in 1930), African-American literature (though the story is about people, first and foremost, and race is secondary to the novel) and as a lost masterpiece. It's a lost masterpiece. Thanks to Alice Walker and Oprah Winfrey, the book was brought back to the public's attention.

One of the issues with reading Hurston's novel is that it's written in dialect--in Hurston's rendition of how Southern Florida black dialect could be spelled out to her. So reading the book is a bit slow; you have to sound out the words in your mind. If this is a problem, then I'd suggest you listen to the book on tape (ably performed by Ruby Dee) and then read the book afterwards.

The story has barely a plot; Janey is a young woman whose grandmother was born in slavery. Her aspirations are no further than the front porch; to live in comfort means being simply able to sit, to sit on the porch and not be in constant motion, working every hour of every day for bare subsistence. She finds an older, established husband for Janey and insists she marry. Janey, then, has a life where, with reasonable work, she can fill her belly and sleep in shelter. Her life is not much better than that of a well-cared-for mule.

One day, Janey runs off with Jody Starks, a man of means who charms her with his worldy ways. This is a man going places. And they do go places; to Eatonville, a town that was chartered as an African-American community. Starks sees opportunity in every corner of dusty Eatonville, buys land, builds a store and a house and installs the beautiful Janey as a symbol of his mastery.

As Mayor, Starks has appearances to keep up.... He has Janey stay in the house or work in the store, and when in the store, she is to keep her head covered. Janey has a wealth of long abundant hair, which Hurston uses as a symbol of life. Janey's hair is flowing and startling; men covet it. As the hair is covered, so is every enjoyment and thought Janey has. She chafes for 20 years under Stark's restrictive rules.

The scene where the "town mule"--a mule freed by Starks from an abusive owner and that became a sort of mascot, dies and is buried in the swamp is exceptional writing, worthy of Mark Twain. The mule is eulogized (by Stark, standing at one point on the mule as podium) and then abandoned to the waiting buzzards. The following scene where the buzzards arrive to do their undertaking is a flight of fancy that is hardly equalled in American literature. All along the book, Hurston takes smaller flights of language; her descriptions sometimes soar, or are humorous or completely imaginative.

Janey runs off after Stark's death with "Tea Cake"--a younger man. While her first two marriages were for the sustenance of the body (food, shelter, comfort, a home) this marriage is for the sustenance of the soul. Tea Cake plays guitar, plays games, dances, gambles, sings and flirts. Hurston is too clever to make him perfect; he hurts Janey, as only someone who loves another person can hurt them, and he is a bit of a cad, yet he brings out something in Janey that no life of pure material wealth could do--freedom and sensuality and joy. The culmination of the story is rather contrived, but still, the completion of the three marriages tells almost a fable-like story of a quest for personal growth. Janey comes home to Eatonville, and tells her story to Phoeby, her friend. The rest of the tale is up to us to fill in.

Sometimes the writing reminds me of Virginia Woolf--the interior dialog and mood of the character is the action as much or more than the action happening on the story's stage. Sometimes Hurston reminds me of Twain in her delving into the linguistic richness and uniqueness of Floridian life. Her education as a folklorist sharpened her ear, but her deep honesty into the interior life of women is what makes this story so great. It's definitely one of the top American novels and deserves to be read. Read more ›

53 of 58 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Every woman's hero. January 27, 2000

By A Customer

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

At the end, I closed the book and I cried. Then I wanted to open it and start reading all over again from the beginning. Janie is a woman who has endured oppression, suppression, and tragedy. She found love and she found herself. She not only survived but discovered her own strength and accepted life without self-destructing. Janie, is every woman's hero, most certainly mine.

46 of 53 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Novel; thank you to my AP English Class May 29, 2000

By Anon

Format:Paperback

This is one of those obscure but great novels--and writers--that I probably never would have discovered or read if it were not for my AP English class (it was on my required summer reading list; which only adds to my already hefty personal reading list, which is ever growing.)I at first wondered why a highschool teacher chose a work not as known or recognized, but figured it out when I realized how local the books setting was (I live in Orlando, FL, which is between most of the settings in the book, and made mention of several times.) But enough of how I came about reading it...

Hurston's novel turned out to be a beautifuly told tale. The insight into the main character, Janie Crawford, was very strong and eloquently told. Also, if you love a lot of beautiful imagery, this is a good example. Every chapter opened--and many closed--with though provoking metaphors and philosophies. The oft-aclaimed dialogue (written in the afro-american dialect of the time period) added a lot to the atmosphere. One of the few, and relatively minor criticisms I can find in this book is that large amounts of space are lost between chapters, and in some cases within them, without transition which is jarring and pulls you out of the fictional dream.

All in all, I would highly recommend this book. It has a beautiful story and is beautifully told.

20 of 21 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A revelation May 23, 2007

By Roger Brunyate TOP 500 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

I am very glad to have finally read this masterpiece. I admit to having avoided Zora Neale Hurston for years, for all the wrong reasons. I react badly to appeals to political correctness, diversity, and white male guilt. But these prejudices were completely blown out of the water by actually reading this radiant book. For Hurston simply writes about PEOPLE -- people of a particular race, gender, time, and place, yes -- but people whose human identity flourishes from these circumstances without being in any way confined by them. I don't think I have read any work of African-American literature that is so little concerned with race tensions, poverty, or the legacy of slavery. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. quotes in his fine afterword to the Harper Perennial edition, Hurston wanted to write about "racial health -- a sense of black people as complete, complex, UNDIMINISHED human beings, a sense that is lacking in so much black writing and literature" [emphasis hers].

For all that, THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD is a difficult book to begin. At first, Hurston seems to be writing in two languages, likely to be equally foreign to many readers. One is the phonetically rendered dialect of her characters, which her contemporaries criticized as making them sound ignorant, but is in fact part and parcel of their vigorous life. The other is the free-form poetry of her descriptions, ordinary words strung together in unexpected ways so that they become quite new. But soon the two voices become as one: the voice of thought unfettered by academic rules. And the power of unfettered thought, the possibility of being oneself without regard to rules or roles, is the enduring theme of the book.

The story is a simple one.... Janie Crawford, fortyish, independent, returns to her community in 1920s Florida, which she had left two years before to marry a much younger man, nicknamed Tea Cake. While most of the women gossip disapprovingly, assuming the worst, she starts to tell her friend Pheoby not only about her life with Tea Cake, but also about the two marriages that preceded it. The first, when she was only a teenager, offered her protection. The second brought a measure of material prosperity. But it is only in the hand-to-mouth existence of the third that she has been able to discover her true self. Janie's story, which began in defiance, ends in quiet luminosity -- and there are many years of her life still ahead of her.

Zora Neale Hurston was also a folklorist, and her writing is illuminated not only by the gossip, traded insults, and tall stories of the Florida blacks, but also by a country mythology that brings in animals and even plants as characters in the story. There are wonderful set pieces, such as the funeral of a mule that begins as a holiday for the entire community and ends with a humorous description of a group of buzzards waiting on permission from their leader before stripping the bones. Other sequences build detail upon detail to terrifying effect, as the South Florida hurricane of 1928 that forms the climax of the book, and precipitates its concluding events.

The Harper Perennial paperback is a joy to read, with a cover design by Robin Bilardello that calls to mind a drawing by Leonardo da Vinci, an excellent foreword by Edwige Danticat, and the Henry Louis Gates afterword. One piece of advice though: read the afterword first, if you like, but save the foreword to the end, as it gives away many details of the plot that you will enjoy discovering for yourself, surrendering to Hurston's magnificent narrative rhythm. Read more ›