Book Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
The opening line of this book is one I will remember for the rest of my life.
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 horizon, never out of site, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by time.
This potent imagery is emblematic of Hurston’s writing style overall. There were so many times while reading this book when I found myself with my eyes closed, trying to just soak in the lyricism of what I had read. Hurston was clearly a master of the metaphor and a master of language.
Hurston’s command of language was also apparent in the dialogue in the book. The heavily phonetic spelling of speech in almost scared me away at first (“Ah ain’t got her to study ‘bout… let her g’wan”), but when I strapped down and started saying the words in my head whole sections of dialogue seemed to pass by with a steady and natural beat. It was wonderful how much more immersive this style of dialogue seemed to be.
I read a version of this book that had a short introduction by Mary Helen Washington, which highlighted how poorly this book was originally received during Hurston’s lifetime. It was unapologetically backwards-looking during the Harlem Renaissance, a time when most black authors were focused on elevating African American culture and consciousness, and breaking free of the limiting chains of racism. In an oh-so-common literary twist of fate, what this book was lambasted for in the ’30s was what it was ultimately lauded for in the ’70s. By focusing on the plight of Janie as a woman above all traits (i.e. blackness), Hurston crafted a seminal piece of feminist literature.
Like the other feminist literature I have read recently (Kim Ji-young, Born 1982 and The Awakening) I loved the complete rejection by the MC of the cultural norms they have been crushed under - at a certain point in these books they just hit that “f*** you, I do what I want” moment, which is so liberating
My only qualm with this book was that that the moment of self-realization felt to me like it ultimately came about because Janie was “rescued” by another man. As good as he was to Janie, Tea Cake as a savior just didn’t feel quite right.
All in all, a fantastic and easy to read book, which I highly recommend to anyone who never got to read it in high-school.
*I am a cis white guy, what do I know of “liberation”? I am not sure if I am the wrong person to be espousing the ideas in this book, or the right person.