Zadie Smith introduces this edition with a knockout recommendation, as a book with a tremendous personal impact on her reading and writing, and as a great 20th century novel. This books takes us into the world of Jamie, born just out of slavery, but bearing the scars of beautiful black women and their inheritance of trauma. Her story is one of both independence and relationships; moving from being chosen to choosing, living in community and the complex, destructive and loving relationships in black labouring communities in a white dominated world. The language shifts from narrator to demotic speech and in the end Jamie walks on her own feet in her own world - one that is revelatory to the reader.

Jamie suffers through life as a poor black women of the South until she meets Tea Cake who takes her in a new direction to the mud of Lake Okeechobee and a deadly hurricane. ( )

Audio version with a knockout performance by the legendary Ruby Dee. Justifiably a classic of American lit. Janie is a memorable protagonist. A black woman who fights for and attains love, dignity and respect in a country that does not want her to have it. ( )

Some of the most polished and insightful prose I’ve encountered. A protagonist of strength and beauty in a world that felt true. ( )

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
(Available in Print: (1937), 10/24/2000; PUBLISHER: Amistad; First Hardcover Edition; ISBN: 978-0060199494; PAGES: 256; Unabridged.)

(Available as Digital)

*This edition-Audio: COPYRIGHT: 10/31/2005; ISBN: 9780060842765; PUBLISHER: Harper Audio; DURATION: 06:44:30; PARTS: 7; Unabridged; FILE SIZE: 194251 KB

TV FILM ADAPTAION: GENRE: Drama; BASED ON: Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston; WRITTEN BY: Suzan-Lori Parks, Misan Sagay, Bobby Smith Jr.; DIRECTED BY: Darnell Martin;
PRESENTED BY: Oprah Winfrey; STARRING: Halle Berry, Ruben Santiago-Hudson; Michael Ealy; MUSIC BY: Terence Blanchard; COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: United States;
ORIGINAL LANGUAGE: English; EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS: Oprah Winfrey, Kate Forte; PRODUCER: Matthew Carlisle; CINAMAPHOTOGRAPHY: Checco Varese; EDITOR: Peter C. Frank; RUNNING TIME: 113 minutes; PRODUCTION COMPANY: Harpo Films; DISTRIBUTOR Touchstone

SERIES:
No

MAJOR CHARACTERS:
(Not comprehensive. I was listening rather than reading, so may not have spelled names correctly)
Janie Crawford – Protagonist
Pheoby – Janie’s friend
Nanny – Janie’s grandmother
Johnny Taylor - Janie’s neighbor
Logan Killicks – Nanny’s choice for Janie’s suitor
Jody (Joe) Starks – Janie’s love interest
Vergible Woods (Tea Cake) – Janie’s love interest
Mrs. Turner – Janie’s neighbor
Motorboat – Teacake’s friend

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I entered this book on my list of ‘want to reads” after reading “The Paris Library” where it was mentioned multiple times, and understandably; philosophical and poetic, it’s a great story.

AUTHOR:
Zora Neale Hurston – “(January 7, 1891[1]: 17 [2]: 5  – January 28, 1960) was an American author, anthropologist, and filmmaker. She portrayed racial struggles in the early-1900s American South and published research on hoodoo.[3] The most popular of her four novels is Their Eyes Were Watching God, published in 1937. She also wrote more than 50 short stories, plays, and essays.” __Wikipedia

NARRATOR:
Ruby Dee: “Ruby Dee (October 27, 1922 – June 11, 2014) was an American actress, poet, playwright, screenwriter, journalist, and civil rights activist.[1] She originated the role of "Ruth Younger" in the stage and film versions of A Raisin in the Sun (1961). Her other notable film roles include The Jackie Robinson Story (1950) and Do the Right Thing (1989).” __Wikipedia
Ruby's narration was fabulous!

GENRE:
Classic Literature; Fiction; African American Fiction; Harlem Renaissance; Women’s Literature;

LOCATIONS:
Soth Florida; Eatonville, Florida; Jacksonville, Florida; Belle Glade (Muck City), Florida; Everglades

TIME FRAME:
Early 20th Century

SUBJECTS:
1928 Okeechobee hurricane; Gender roles; Family relations; Love; Romance; Survival; Marriage; African American; Post American Civil War; Post-Slavery Florida; Trial; Beauty; Liberation; Eye dialect

DEDICATION:
"To Henry Allen Moe"

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 1
"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.
Now, women forget all those things they don't want to remember, and remember everything they don't want to forget. The dream is the truth. Then they act and do things accordingly.
So the beginning of this was a woman and she had come back from burying the dead. Not the dead of sick and ailing with friends at the pillow and the feet. She had come back from the sodden and the bloated; the sudden dead, their eyes flung wide open in judgement.
The people all saw her come because it was sundown. The sun was gone, but he had left his footprints in the sky. It was the time for sitting on porches beside the road. It was the time to hear things and talk. These sitters had been tongueless, earless, eyeless conveniences all day long. Mules and other brutes had occupied their skins. But now, the sun and the bossman were gone, so the skins felt powerful and human. They became lords of sounds and lesser things. They passed nations through their mouths. They sat in judgement.
Seeing the woman as she was made them remember the envy they had stored up from other times. So they chewed up the back parts of their minds and swallowed with relish. They made burning statements with questions, and killing tools out of laughs. It was cruelty. A mood come alive. Words walking without masters; walking altogether like harmony in a song.
'What she doin' coming back here in dem overhalls? Can't she fin no dress to put on?--Where's dat blue satin dress she left here in?--Where all dat money her husband took and died and left her?--What dat ole forty year ole 'oman doin' wid her hair swingin' down her back lak some young gal?--Where she left dat young lad of a boy she went off here wid?--Though she was goint to marry?--Where he left her?--What he done wid all her money?--Betcha he off wid some gal so young she ain't even got no hairs--why she don't stay in her class?--"

RATING: 4 stars.
STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
5-16-2022 to 5-20-2022
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