„Then you must tell ‚em dat love ain’t somethin‘ lak uh grindstone dat’s de same thing everywhere and do de same thing tuh everything it touch. Love is lak de sea. It’s uh movin‘ thing, but still and all, it takes its shape from de shore it meets, and it’s different with every shore.“

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

I consider myself someone who has a decent knowledge of the classics. Although I have to say that most of the classics I know come from the german and broadly european canon (emphasis still on the german literature. Hey makes sense though as I studied german language and literature at university). I have been diving into the english/american classics for a while now as well. But what I sadly missed so far is talking a specific look at black/african-american literature almost altogether (with a few exceptions like Toni Morrison, Octavia E. Butler, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and so on). And I always wanted to read more from female authors. So all in all, my newest read fit all of these categories perfectly: a classic from a black, female author. I didn’t know anything about Zora Neale Hurston or her work before diving into this book, but thats how I like it best. Diving in with a fresh mind and a clean slate, so to speak.

I will not lie, the first few chapters were hard. And just because of one thing in particular: The written southern accent the characters all speak with. For a non native english speaker this needed some getting used to. It got way easier for me when I just imagined them speaking with this sweet southern drawl in my head, but before this, I was a bit lost, I will tell you. Using this little trick and not giving up rewarded me with having no problems anymore after a few chapters though, so to all that have a similar experience: Keep going, you got this!

In „Their Eyes Were Watching God“ we follow Janie, a young black girl, through her life and her experiences in seeking love and herself. She makes different and not all good experiences with men and manages to never loose herself fully and keeps on searching for what it really is she wants from life. Janie herself is such a likeable character that I kept rooting for her through the entire book. It was so nice to see how she came closer step by step to the future she always wished for without knowing it by becoming more and more herself. In that sense this story was almost like a coming-of-age story. In this case more a becoming-yourself story.

The pacing was woderful (I do like a slow book I have to admit!) and the plot was always realistic but never boring or dull by any means. I particularly enjoyed learning more about african-american culture. The art of verbal exchange and artful mocking (verbal artistry) I enjoyed the most, being not familiar with that so far and so much enjoying just reading that (would love to witness this cultural heritage in real life at some point). Another topic that sparked my interest was that of the search for identity, which was not just a topic for Janie personally, but for the african-american society in the USA in gerenal. Being a mistreated minority they search for their place in society between assimilating to white standards and expressing their own cultural riches.

All in all a challenging but beautiful read with complex and important topics portraied. I enjoyed myself reading this and will surely read more by Zora Neale Hurston in the future ( if you want to not miss this, you can enter your mailadress below and them get notified as soon as a new blogpost is up).

⭐⭐⭐⭐ 4 stars read

Trigger Warning: Physical Violence, Verbal Abuse, Depiction of Disease, Possible Traumatic Events (Natural Disaster)