written artwork - their eyes were watching god

Zora Neale Hurston's novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God, is one of the 'new classics' I added to my list to read.  The book was written in 1937 and is quite refreshing to read in between some of the much older classics.  

Hurston's writing style is superb.  You are transported into a time and culture that is and was difficult to step into.  The African American community during this time is wonderfully explained through the main character, Janie, and her relationship and marriage to three very different men.  

I would have to say that my favorite part of this novel is use of dialect within the dialogues.  I loved being able to read with the slang and accents used during this time and in this community.  This is not an easy way to write.  I am currently reading War and Peace and when he tries to write in a German accent, it just makes it seem like they have a lisp.  Hurston is an expert to be admired.

Their Eyes Were Watching God is a fantastic example of an easily digestible tragedy.  Janie's life is not glamorous or easy.  The story does not end on a good note.  However, you come away still feeling satisfied, which I believe is due to the poignant nature of the story. 

My official recommendation with this book...read it and enjoy!
 

A list of what's to come, and what has already been explored.

My Written Artwork Journey Explained here

1. Animal Farm - George Orwell
2. The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
3. Emma - Jane Austen
4. Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
5. Cat on a Hot Tin Roof - Tennessee Williams
6. Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
7. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - Robert Louis Stevenson
8. Frankenstein - Mary Shelley
9. The Canterbury Tales - Geoffrey Chaucer
10. Les Miserables - Victor Hugo
11. Nineteen Eighty-four - George Orwell
    
12. Death of a Salesman - Arthur Miller
13. Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
14. The Scarlet Letter - Nathaniel Hawthorne
15. The Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
16. Treasure Island - Robert Louis Stevenson
17. Pickwick Papers - Charles Dickens
18. Catch-22 - Joseph Heller
19. The Catcher in the Rye - J.D. Salinger
20. Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
21. Invisible Man - Ralph Ellison
22. Lord of the Flies - William Golding
23. Slaughterhouse-Five - Kurt Vonnegut
24. The sun Also Rises - Ernest Hemingway
25. Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston
26. Things Fall Apart - Chinua Achebe
27. Love in the Time of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
28. War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
29. Little Woman - Louisa Ma Alcott
30. Crime and Punishment - Fedor Dostoyevsky
31. Watership Down - Richard Adams
32. Doctor Zhivago - Boris Pasternak
33. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn - Mark Twain
34. All Quiet on the Western Front - Erich Maria Remarque
35. Sherlock Holmes - Arthur Conan Doyle
36. Moby Dick - Herman Melville
37. The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane
38. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
39. Tales - Edgar Allan Poe
40. Diary of a Madman and Other Stories - Nikolai Gogol
41. Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
42. A Farewell To Arms - Ernest Hemingway
43. Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen