Their Eyes Were Watching God
Zora Neale Hurston · 1891–1960 · USA
Why it matters
Janie Crawford's three marriages and her arrival at her own voice, in folk speech raised to poetry. Out of print for decades, revived into the canon: the Harlem Renaissance's essential novel.
At a glance
bildungsromanromance
Difficulty 5/10medium pace219 pagesRich dialect prose is lyrical but requires acclimation to its rendered folk speech.
Deep dive
Why Hurston frames the whole novel as a story told on a porch to one trusted friend, and what that has to do with a pear tree Janie never stops looking for.
