Rating: 
Summary: Rooting for Janie!
Review: This book is one I hold dear simply because Janie is NORMAL and I'm sure that no matter race, creed, or location most women can relate. She isn't perfect, she isn't an amazing hero of sorts, just a woman trying to find who she is and what she wants in due time. Packed with detail and a great plot, "Their Eyes Were Watching God" is truly wonderful.
Rating: 
Summary: Beautiful language, memorable characters, amazing story
Review: This book was originally published in 1937 and brought back into print because of an article in MS Magazine written by Alice Walker in 1975. It is considered a classic now, and is often required reading in South Florida high schools, and elsewhere I suspect, as well as being the book selected for Read Together Palm Beach County and for Read Together, Florida, a statewide reading project in 2004. Hurston was a member of the Harlem Renaissance movement, but was abhorred by Richard Wright who criticized her severely. Nonetheless, this book was an alternate pick of the Book of the Month Club when originally published. A short time later, some very ugly charges were leveled against Hurston; she eventually cleared her name but she never really got over it. Her books went out of print and she died, penniless, and was buried in an unmarked grave. Alice Walker found what was presumably Hurston's grave and erected a monument that reads, in addition to her name and dates, "Genius of the South."Their Eyes Were Watching God has quite a bit of Hurston's life, and more importantly, her beliefs invested in the main character of Janie Crawford. The novel is framed by Janie's return to Eatonville, the first all black incorporated city in the United States. Everyone in town is gossiping about her, and Janie tells her story to Pheoby, her best friend, and asks her to tell the townsfolk. Janie was raised by grandmother, Nanny, a former slave, who marries her off to an older farmer, Logan Killicks, when she's 16. She's not happy in that marriage and she leaves and marries Joe Starkes, who takes her to the new town of Eatonville. He becomes mayor there, and builds a store that becomes the center of town life. Twenty years later he dies, and she hooks up with the love of her life, Tea Cake, who is much younger than she is. He takes her to the Everglades where they survive the hurricane of 1928 that wiped out the 'Glades, but Tea Cake gets bitten by a rabid dog in the process. After his death, Janie returns to Eatonville, completing the frame. This is the story of a strong black woman's search for happiness and independence in a time when neither of those things was easily attainable. It is written in dialect, and is not an easy read. I listened to the beginning of the book on CD, produced by Recorded Books and read by Michele-Denise Woods, which it made it much easier to read on my own. It is also available on audiocassette read by Ruby Dee. Reading it aloud also helps - hearing the dialect makes it much easier to read. It's a terrific story and the language is incredibly beautiful, making the life of Janie Crawford a memorable one.
Rating:
Summary: True love at it's best
Review: This book was so enjoying. She writes so artistic and she makes you feel like you are right there watchin each scene being played out.Very descriptive and keeps you turning the pages.
Rating:
Summary: Gorgeous!
Review: This is the most beautiful thing I've ever read in my life. I'm not talking about the story--the story is lovely and meaningful, but it's Hurston's prose that makes this my favorite novel of all time. It's like poetry, like music, like a blessing. The style is simple, the dialogue is written in dialect, but don't assume from those superficialities that the novel is too simple to have the power to thrill. Let the gorgeous words wash over you.
Rating:
Summary: A Journey Toward Self Discovery
Review: To end my senior year, my English teacher assigned my class to read a book of our choice and to present the novel to the class, thus preparing us all for the dreaded Advanced Placement exam. I must admit that I chose "Their Eyes Were Watching God" simply on account of its length; of course I waited until the last minute to read it. I was expecting it to be another book about the oppression of blacks by whites-I cannot count how many of that theme I have read. I opened the front cover, dreading the next 200 pages. As I began to read, however, I was intrigued. Hurston had created a character, Janie Crawford, who was searching for a voice, for her own identity, a topic that I could actually relate to, especially now, as I head off to college. Janie, like most of my peers, didn't know who she was. She was married early in her teen years and for most of her life had been a trophy wife to Jody, her second husband. Not until she met Tea Cake did she begin to have a chance to discover herself. Originally, all she knew about herself was that she was a woman. Her mulatto background added to the confusion of where she belonged. Although the ending of the book was by no means a happy one, it was bittersweet when Janie realized that she was an individual who did not need a man to be worth something as a human being.
Libby Inchalik '04
Mercy High School
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