Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston, 1937
Historical fiction Literary fictionContemporary fictionRomance
Janie's grandmother wants her settled; Janie wants to be in love. A novel in the sound of Florida speech, about a woman deciding her own life. The prose moves like spoken Florida talk, lyrical and aphoristic, carrying Janie's longing and hard-won sense of freedom.
Feels like longing and awe. About love, freedom and faith.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you enjoy voice-driven literary fiction that trusts dialect and aphorism to carry a life story. The novel's Black Southern dialect is thick on the page, so it asks for patience with the sound of the speech before the story opens.
Why read it
It gives you a woman's own accounting of desire and independence, told in a voice that makes the Florida setting feel immediate and alive.
A page from the book
What the horizon does to a wish, depending on who is watching.
Ships at a distance have every man’s wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the same horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.Now, women forget all those things they don’t want to remember, and remember everything they don’t want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly. Zora Neale Hurston.Hurston trained as an anthropologist under Franz Boas and drove the rural South collecting Black folklore; she wrote this novel in seven weeks while in Haiti.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Their Eyes Were Watching God for me?
- You may like it if you enjoy voice-driven literary fiction that trusts dialect and aphorism to carry a life story. The novel's Black Southern dialect is thick on the page, so it asks for patience with the sound of the speech before the story opens.
- What is Their Eyes Were Watching God like?
- The prose moves like spoken Florida talk, lyrical and aphoristic, carrying Janie's longing and hard-won sense of freedom. Feels like longing and awe. About love, freedom and faith.
- What should I read after Their Eyes Were Watching God?
- If you liked Their Eyes Were Watching God, try All Your Perfects (Colleen Hoover), Twisted Lies (Ana Huang) and 11/22/63 (Stephen King).
A taste of the feed
The loneliest version of alone is the one you learn after being loved.
I used to be fine when I was alone. But now that I have you, I’m lonely when I’m alone.
All Your Perfects · Colleen Hoover
Some names arrive in the body before the mind can prepare.
“Stella!” My heart rate sped up. Nothing triggered my fight-or-flight response like the sound of Meredith’s voice. “Yes?” I hid my trepidation behind a neutral expression.
Twisted Lies · Ana Huang
A case for love as something you carry, not something fated.
But I believe in love, you know; love is a uniquely portable magic. I don’t think it’s in the stars, but I do believe that blood calls to blood and mind calls to mind and heart to heart.
11/22/63 · Stephen King
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