Looking Back - Their Eyes Were Watching God

Looking Back... In an effort to transfer my book journal entries over to this blog, I'm going to attempt to post (in chronological order) an entry every Friday. I may or may not add extra commentary to what I jotted down in these journals.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
Fiction
1990 Harper Collins (first published in 1937)
Finished in January 1998
Rating: 4/5 (Very Good)

Publisher's Blurb:

One of the most important works of twentieth-century American literature, Zora Neale Hurston's beloved 1937 classic, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is an enduring Southern love story sparkling with wit, beauty, and heartfelt wisdom. Told in the captivating voice of a woman who refuses to live in sorrow, bitterness, fear, or foolish romantic dreams, it is the story of fair-skinned, fiercely independent Janie Crawford, and her evolving selfhood through three marriages and a life marked by poverty, trials, and purpose.

A true literary wonder, Hurston's masterwork remains as relevant and affecting today as when it was first published - perhaps the most widely read and highly regarded novel in the entire canon of African American literature.

My Original Notes (1998):

What a beautifully written book. It reminded me a little bit of Alice Walker's The Color Purple. 

My favorite paragraph:

Every morning the world flung itself over and exposed the town to the sun. So Janie had another day. And every day had a store in it, except Sunday. The store itself was a pleasant place if only she didn't have to sell things. When the people sat around on the porch and passed around the pictures of their thoughts for the others to look at and see, it was nice. The fact that the thought pictures were always crayon enlargements of life made it even nicer to listen to.

Heartbreaking; passionate; humorous.

My Current Thoughts:

The above paragraph has stayed with me for the past 20 years! Not word for word, but the phrase about "thought pictures" is one I always think of when I think of Zora Neale Hurston.