Rating: 
Summary: An American Literary Masterpiece!
Review: I have never been as moved by any book as I have with this one. Zora Neale Hurston created a magnificent story of a woman and the path that lead her to self fulfillment. Many say that this is a feminist book, I disagree. It is a story about tragedy, truimph, love and heartbreak. It's on the same shelf as Fitzgerald's "The Great Gastby" and Mitchell's "Gone With The Wind". You will not forget Janine Crawford, nor would you want to. After reading it, I felt renewed. This was the first book I've read of Zora Neale Hurston and I have been a fan ever since. Read it!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful!
Review: I've turned many of my friends on to this book.
The honesty and passion of this story defies
description. I can't read the last sentence of
it without crying my eyes out for every good reason that a person was meant to weep. Please
read it. You'll be glad you did.
Rating: 
Summary: The Way It Is
Review: This is an excellent book with in depth dialect that relates to her feelings an at sometimes seems to be lacking some clarity. She is brilliant author and continues to show her great mataphors of the evolution of a young girl into the kingdom of sexuality and maturity
Rating: 
Summary: Unfulfilled potential
Review: I was really excited when I found out I'd be reading this book in English class because it had been highly recommended to me by a former teacher, but I'd been too lazy to get around to reading it.Strangely enough, I was disappointed. This spare, straightforward story about a young woman's lifetime pursuit of happiness in 1920s black America left me feeling empty and void. It wasn't bad by any means, but I just felt as if there could have been more, as if Ms. Hurston had just taken a beautiful turkey out of the oven but had forgotten to add the stuffing.Ms. Hurston writes in a mix of dialect which can be difficult to decipher (although it can be kind of cool to read aloud and figure out) and proper English. The contrast is strange, but doesn't really get in the way of the story.There was just SO much more Ms. Hurston could have done to help connect the reader to Janie's (the young woman) emotions and forge a strong identity for her that would have pulled the reader in to her world. Instead, to me Janie was just a husk, a purely two dimensional character confined within the pages of the book. She never came to life, and the same goes for all the other characters. Reading this book for me was just going through the motions, since that's what it felt like the characters were doing. There was plenty of dialogue, but no real meaning and connection. This was definitely a novel with a lot of potential which remained mostly unfulfilled
Rating:
Summary: I read it for a class, but I would read it again on my own!
Review: Hurston's poetic, yet direct and honest language set the perfect tone for this novel about a woman finding herself. It was wonderful to finally find a coming of age story that I could really identify with, even though I am not African-American. Hurston's ideas, characters and language are so fresh and unique. They are the change from the European-male literature that I have been unconsciously longing for for a long time. It is time that novels like this took over the mainstream
Rating:
Summary: A passionate, yet soul soothing literary experience.
Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God will cause you to quietly surrender your heart and soul to a beautiful life. The life of Janie Crawford is immediately identifable and moving. This book is about such a life. Hurston let's the reader witness the beginning of Janie's adult life and leads you to the fulfillment of Janie's entire being. Hurston doesn't allow you to witness the story, as much as transform the reader into the wind that blows through Janie's life. Hurston brings the harsh realities and the joy that Janie experience in a soft, yet forceful light, that it's almost like feeling the knockout punch of a heavy weight, with his glove wrapped in cotton! I can't recommend this novel highly enough. A definite must for every library! A marvelous piece of literature
Rating:
Summary: Incredible.
Review: This is truly a must-read for anyone interested in 1920s history, African American history, etc. A wonderful read about a rather independent-minded woman and the loves and adventures of her life. This is the best-known of Zora's books, and (for me) is one of her two best (along with "Jonah's Gourd Vine")
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic
Review: Powerful writing, presents an impresive view of african americans living in Florida.
Impressively unbiased, defies political labeling. A must for anyone interested in American culture.
Rating:
Summary: Their Eyes Were Watching God
Review: I was required to read this book in class. Although many of my peers disliked it, I found Their Eyes Were Watching God to be an interesting book. The vernacular dialect made it hard to read but I enjoyed the theme of love throughout the book. I was interested in the lessons that Janie, the main character, learned through each person that she met throughout her journey. I was interested in all of the African-American culture that filled this book. I would not recommend this book to everyone but it would be good for anyone who wants to broaden their horizons.
Rating:
Summary: Zora as Muse
Review: Criticized for not writing a protest novel by some of her fellow African-American writers of the time, Zora instead wrote one of the most poetic novels ever written in the United States. Written in the vernacular of her African-American characters while narrated in standard form, this novel is a blues tale which uses both variations of the language to tranport the reader into the heart and soul of Janie, a young African-American woman in the 1930s on a search.Musical, heartbreaking, endearing, hilarious, and a novel where the issues of the day enter in horrific ways, this book's title has to best describe Zora as she wrote this book, divinely inspired. There is love, there is marriage, there is separation, there is an irrepressible woman who still speaks to all about the search all meaningful lives undertake. Alice Walker so loved this book and this author she restored her grave.
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