Their Eyes Were Watching God: a review

"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board."

When a novel opens with a sentence that beautiful and revelatory, it's hard to imagine the author can maintain that high standard throughout. In Their Eyes Were Watching God, Zora Neale Hurston creates such poetry and truth on nearly every page. 

Beyond her mastery of language, Hurston's experience as an anthropologist, ethnographer, and folklorist give her an incredible insight into humanity, particularly the humanity of Black communities of the southern US in the 1930s, (though Their Eyes reaches back to the slave era in explaining the motivations of protagonist Janie's grandmother). 

I was fascinated to learn of Eatonville, Florida, one of the first self-governing all-Black communities in the US. I was even more fascinated with the way Hurston weaves Black folklore throughout the story without ever foregrounding it as such. The personification of Death. Community moments of song. Games. Nicknames. The depth of culture and the celebration throughout the story adds a richness like the soil in the great Floridian muck. 

Their Eyes has a framing story that begins at the end, yet the story moves with surprise. Janie grows and moves and makes free choices that women still struggle for 90 years on. The plot travels - literally and figuratively - it never hurries, but it keeps action happening even in simple domestic scenes.

Hurston's female characters, especially main character Janie, do have more fullness than the male characters, but that feels appropriate to the story. The males aren't flat, they are just peripheral characters. I love Janie. I wish I could sit on the porch with her and learn more from her. She is wise, unique, brave, strong, and honest.  

Their Eyes is simple, and it is incredibly complex. It is comfortable and unique. It is brief and deep. I understand why Alice Walker said "There is no book more important to me than this one." I will not be loaning my copy out. 

PS: I cut the earlier quote short so you could feel the power of it. In fact, the whole paragraph hangs together so beautifully that it should be enjoyed in its fullness: 

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 sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation, his dreams mocked to death by Time. That is the life of men.