Their Eyes Were Watching God

Rating:
Summary: An Unusual American Classic
Review: I bought this book because it was on Amazon's Top 100 list. I never heard of the book before (embarrassing as I'm 30), but gave it a try. I find this book truly fascinating, especially given the context of the authors life (contemporary of Richard Wright, worked as a maid). It is a singing, lyrical book, full of hope for a life well lived and a love that's fought for to keep alive. Especially rich was the dramatic distinction in the book between southern black English of the time, seen in the dialogue, and the author's proper, university-level English, seen in the commentary. These juxtapositions alone made the book, though the story itself is absorbing. Consummately optomistic while attacking society at the same time, I prefer her to the dark, nihilistic writings from her contemporaries. I rarely read books twice, but I am guessing that I will pick this book up again in another ten years.

Rating:
Summary: Who made this a "classic"?
Review: I have no idea who decided this book was so great, but it is one of the most overrated books ever. Good Lord, it is simply dreadful. Stay away from it at all costs - if you have to read it for high school english class as I did, save yourself the trouble and buy the cliff's notes.

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Summary: Students missing the point?
Review: I would like to comment on the following book. I have been reading the reviews from various students who have had to read the book in a class, and some of them seem to be missing the point of WHY it is, indeed, a wnderful work of literature. Their Eyes Were Watching God is a beautiful novel written about a woman's struggle for independence and in a snese, to find herself. If you haven't read books of this type before with a somewhat difficult dialogue to read (at times like the dialogue in The Color Purple), then that could perhas be why someone may not enjoy or understand it. Otherwise, an amazing book about the spirit of one woman.

Rating:
Summary: Very Over-Rated!
Review: It is a mystery why people think this is such a great book. Perhaps I'm not "artsy" enough, but I fail to see the genious in this book. Aside from the colloquial jargon, which I admit, takes talent (but is very annoying), there is nothing that can keep this book up to the level of Faulkner's work (which it has been compared to). The plot is extremely linear and predictable, not to mention unbelieveable; that storm scene is so fake it came across as humorous. The main characters bother me, they make situations worse, for example: Sethe should've waited for a man she loved insead of jumping into situations. I know people make mistakes, but she never seemed to learn from them. I don't know why schools make students read this, it's a waste of time. There are many books of the same genre that are MUCH better, like Toni Morrison's Beloved (or any of her books for that matter). Beloved is deeper, more artistic, and more enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: A great work of American literature?
Review: I struggled to read this book not too long ago, and found it extremely difficult to maintain any interest whatsoever in it. The dialect was confusing, and the characters and plot struck me as uninteresting and insignificant. Perhaps there is a reason this book has been referred to as a great work of American literature, but I fail to see it.

Rating:
Summary: An insult
Review: Like a large number of the reviewers here I was required to read this book for my English class. It was very difficult to get into it. It was near plotless and the dialect gets old very quickly. I couldn't stay focused on the story. I didn't see any substance in it. I can see why some people enjoy this book, but I don't think most people would. The thing I found most annoying about this book was the frequent jumping between southern dialect and the standard literary 40-letter-word vocabulary. They just don't go together very well. It shocks me that they expect highschoolers to read, comprehend, and enjoy this book.

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Summary: _The_ Modern love story
Review: Other modernists, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald and Edith Wharton, tore apart the classical love story, dependant as it was on outer union, on a coupling of circumstance and fate. Age of Innocence is a biting parody, exposing the superficiality of, for example, Jane Austen's society romances (despite their unsurpassed wit). Gatsby buys into classical script, but the carefully constructed narrative of Romantic love he tries to realize is shattered by the realities of a modern age. He is left, staring at an empty window because he cannot believe that Daisy is not behind it gazing at him, but downstairs coming to terms with her husband. Their Eyes Were Watching God, however, fills the void left by others' criticism. At first, romantic love sweeps Hurston's heroine too off her feet: "From now on until death she was going to have flower dust and springtime sprinkled over everything. A bee for her bloom." But this is unsatisfying, and eventually the book reveals a love story for the modern age, which finds as its essence not external union, but inner, personal fulfillment and genuine partnership. This is not to say Hurston's vision is more 'realistic,' or less rare, but that, as an ideal, it is far more relevant than its predecessors. Hurston's lovers find in each other not alabaster idols, but a mutual epiphany. "They seemed to be staring at the dark, but their eyes were watching God."

Rating:
Summary: A Hidden Treasure
Review: I first encountered Zora Neale Hurston's "There Eyes Were Watching God" in a 10th grade English class, and I must say that this book is one of the greatest gifts provided to me by my educational experience. I have reread it innumerable times since, each time more fuliflled and amazed than the last. The plot is moving and poignantly realistic, as each of Janie's experiences strikes a nerve in the reader. One rejoices in her triumphs and cries over her tragedies, and is left at the end of the book to carefully examine the ways in which she has grown as an individual woman seeking love and happiness. In addition, the writing style is magnificent, as Hurston demonstrates a remarkable ability to accurately portray an intricate southern dialect while simultaneously interweaving some of the most lyrical and advanced prose in all of literature. Anyone who wants to be exposed to the finest African-American author (and I argue the finest American author) of our time must read "Their Eyes Were Watching God."

Rating:
Summary: Rough going but worth it
Review: Yes, I'm glad this book was rescued from obscurity. It has in incredible lyrical intensity, and some of the line I read over and over because they were pure poetry. I had trouble, however, with the dialect. It took me quite a while to read this book because I kept stumbling over some of the dialogue. I would love to hear this read by Ruby Dee on audio-book because I can imagine how wonderful the dialect SOUNDS.

Rating:
Summary: A Literary Masterpiece
Review: Zora Neale Hurston's THEIR EYES WERE WATCHING GOD is probably one of the greatest works of American fiction. And there is perhaps no other novel which can capture the essence of the African-American female experience as well as Hurston's novel. Through the sufferings of two oppressive marriages and the joys of one self-empowering marriage, Janie the protagonist emerges a strong, self-confident black woman. And Hurston uses such wonderful metaphors and images to describe Janie's consciousness, that the reader has almost no problem relating to what this woman is experiencing. A must read!