Books Read: 4

I finished Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston a few weeks ago. This story centers around a Janie Crawford an African American woman and her different lifestyles with the 3 men she was married too. She tells this story to her friend Phoebe, who will tell it to the rest of the community of Eatonville. She was forced to marry Logan Killicks, an older man who owns a farm nearby, because her grandmother does not want her to turn out like her mother. Janie believe marriage should be about love, but Logan just wants someone to help around the the domestic work on the farm. Janie is unhappy in this situation and runs off with Jody or Joe Starks to Eatonville. Joe organizes the people of Eatonville and becomes Mayor, store owner, and postal worker for the town and makes Janie work in the store for him. Joe wants her to be a trophy wife not participating in the social life of the town. When Joe passes away, Janie becomes independent and is besotted by suitors, but ends up running away with a drifter/gambler named Vergible Woods or Tea Cake. They move to the Everglades to work planting and harvesting of beans-Janie finally has the marriage of love that she wanted. A hurricane hits the everglades and while Janie and Tea Cake are escaping the catastrophe, Tea Cake is bitten by a rabid dog while trying to save Janie. He contracts the disease and tries to shoot Janie, but Janie shoots him with his shotgun in self defense. She is tried for murder and while her black male friends oppose her, the white females support her and eventually the all white jury acquits her and she gives Tea Cake a large funeral. She ends up moving back in Eatonville.

I thought this book was alright. I had a lot of trouble understanding the writing style. Zora Hurston wrote exactly how the people talked back then, but it was difficult for me to read it and understand what they were talking about. For example, "tators" were portatos, which took me a few sentences to figure out. I enjoy the authenticity of it, but I did have trouble following the conversations because of that. The general plot was somewhat interesting, but nothing I could really get sucked into. I wouldn't strongly recommend nor strongly not recommend this book. It's a decent read if you are looking for something short and not too complex. However, just giving a heads up on the difficulties there are with the language.