Their Eyes Were Watching God

Zora Neale Hurston, 1937 Date Read: 5/14/22

This is such a sad story (why are so many classic novels so damn sad??) I can really feel Janie a lot. Her first two marriages are miserable but she finally finds the love of her life. I was only married once before my current husband, but it sure was miserable! Though Janie is older than Tea Cake, her husband, and my husband, David, is older than me.

The only difficulty I had with this novel is that Hurston wrote the dialog as it would have been spoken. Like reading Mark Twain. So sometimes I had to read it out loud to understand what they were saying.

In essence, this is a story of a woman taking her life into her own hands and enjoying it as much as she can. She's gained her personhood and her independence. The novel is the story of what she does with it.

This is a beautifully written love story with a tragic ending.

Length: 227 pages in hardback

ReReadability: probably yes

Classic: absolutely!!