Rating: 
Summary: I guess I didn't get it
Review: I can tell when everyone is raving about something that I found profoundly tedious, that there is something in that book that I missed. Probably in my desperate efforts to sound out all the dialogue in my head. I felt that I had to try so hard to do this that I missed what the people were actually saying. It was almost like reading a book in a foreign language. I never did identify with any of the characters, nor did I like any of them. I did not actively dislike most of them, either, I simply did not care. I find nothing heroic about a woman who simply reacts to everything and everybody. The relationships left me cold, and I certainly found nothing romantic about Tea Cake's possessiveness and physical abuse. The one redeeming part of the book was the narrative, but I'd estimate that comprised something like 35% of the total text, the rest was dialogue, a huge portion of which seemed fiercely racist to me. I honestly found it difficult to finish this book, and only kept reading it because I was expecting it to get good, for something to happen. It never did. The only other time I have felt this was reading Stegner's Angle of Repose. Both these books made Top 100 Novels lists. I thought at first that perhaps one had to be black to "get" this book, but now that I read the reviews, I find it has a much broader appeal than that, so maybe I'll try this again in 20 years or so. By then maybe I'll have forgotten how mind-numbingly boring I found it.
Rating: 
Summary: This book is great, should be a movie
Review: She did a wonderful job writing this book. I love the way she wrote in down south lingo instead of trying to speak proper. I love this story. All the charactors are great. She put them all together perfectly.
Rating:
Summary: Perfection!
Review: Having read a lot of criticisms surrounding Hurston's works, I still find them (and specifically this one) to be pure perfection. The dialect, the expressions. . . better than the richest dessert!
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful Language; Beautiful Characters; Beautiful Story
Review: This book is not just for women! However, the lessons that Hurston teaches in this novel are lessons that must be heard by every woman on the planet. Janie is a powerful woman who dies twice while living in the shadows of men. Finally, she finds Teacake, a man who lifts her up on a pedestal of sunlight, instead of breaking her. This story is not about racial tension in the South. In fact, there aren't really any white characters in the all black self-sufficient town. With that out of the way, we see the characters not as "Black People," but as human beings.
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Summary: Every young woman must read this book! Find Yourself!
Review: This was a book club selection by a member that likes heavy-feminist stories - not my favorite genre. What a wonderful surprise - I could not stop from turning the pages well into the night. As a newly married 29-year old, I relate well to Janie's struggles with society, marriage and family expectation. She is a woman that encourages women quietly to find themselves - to risk not doing so will cost us everything. Had she lived the life her family wanted would have left her as a shell. This is a story that will live with you for a while - I can't wait to read it again in a few years!
Rating:
Summary: "Brevity is the soul of wit." (Shakespeare?)
Review: With few words, Zora is able to paint an entire scene or evoke a familiar feeling--something that requires a paragraph or more from most authors! Beautiful literature & gripping story! Best book I've read, and I'm an over 40, avid reader.
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Summary: Janie Crawford is a model for the self-assured woman.
Review: I first read this novel as I was preparing to compose a seminar paper. I had no idea at the time that I would enjoy this tale so much.Janie Crawford is a hero(ine). Her struggle to protect her self from desecration is inspiring and wonderful. Zora Neale Hurston weaves humor and strength throughout to tie and bind this story. Her writing is, in my opinion, highly effective and the language and tone which Hurston uses has a story all their own. I loved this novel also because I was reminded of Alice Walker's The Color Purple for reasons so deep that I do not think I have enough room or time to describe.
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Summary: A Response Paper to Rýchard Wrights Criticism of Hurston
Review: Richard Wright, who defines Their Eyes as having no theme, no message, or thought and accuses Hurston of writing only to satisfy white folk's ego by creating black stereotypes,in fact objects the feminist theme that he coould not catch in his novels.While Wright treats black-white relations in the aspect of racism,Hurston touches the matter of male -female relations within the black race which she could not differentiate until the age of 13. The novel seems to be deprived of "high art" which Alain Locke thinks the new negro writer has to create.On the contrary, as an antropologist,Hurston devotes her life to analyze the true origin of negro culture.Black man,who has been deprived of a certain identity in the institution of slavery for years,finds himself choking in a dilemma and begins to search for identity after he broke down his chains. Richard Wright describes Husrton's style as natural but that is as far as it goes. Hurston sincerity in using Black Vernacular language cannot save the novel from being "simple".Janie's speeches cannot go farther than being simple black dialectic,but we observe the essence of a self-relied woman,who did learn how to stand in her own feet,behind this speeches. In conclusion, Hurston treats the race problem as much as Wright did in his novels,but in a very differnt dimension.In the opposition of conjectures, she did not write to satisfy white folk,she wrote to emancipate female conscience in Afro-American culture.she does noy see any harm in using Balck Vernacular language which is an essential part of black culture and she even lets it to dominate over the novel which places her name among the best Afro-American women writers.
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Summary: This Book Gave Me Hope
Review: This book taught me, or at least helped me to develop my understanding of what life is all about...why we are here. The search for love that Janie undertakes is not only one that I related to and could understand and feel, it went beyond a search for love to the search for one's own soul and the meaning of life and God's place in it. When Janie finds Teacake, she finds a great man, a real man, and she finds herself. She also finds the meaning of love and this brings her closer to God. The power of the book is not just the lessons that it teaches and its profound insight, but also the way that it teaches...by touching the emotions and the soul. I have never cried so hard reading a book. The tears are both out of the joy and the sadness, at once. I have always believed in true love and finding it, but after this book, there was no doubt. I am still waiting for my Teacake.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful literature and an equally brilliant story
Review: Their Eyes Were Watching God was, without a doubt, one of the best books I have ever read.Not only was the literature beautiful but the story was beautiful as well. The characters are so real, and the book seems to give women readers a knowledge of life unequal to any other book I have ever read. Her writing is like poetry but of the best kind, and if I were to call it a poem, then it is the best poem I've ever read. Zora is truly talented and I would recommend this book to any one who can appreciate a book for the richness of it's language, for the authenticity of it's dialoge, for the simplicity of it's story, and for the beauty of it's plot.
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