Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God IV

"The story was created just so Mrs. Hurston could use 'black vernacular' or ebonix of the early 1900's. The sharp contrast between the ebonix and nornmal English narrative was NOT, in my opinion, a great literary device. It was neither educational nor informative to read long sections of dialogue like the sentence in the title of this review. Forcing myself to read improper English, to say the least, for an English class was very annoying. I don't think any educator would want me to write or speak like the dialogue in this book, so what is the point of reading it? The story was powerful and moving, but only if it had been written in English. Ah reckon dis be de en' of de review. Ah be wishin' dat Ah ain't gointuh hafta read nuttin' lak dis again. Isn't dis annoyin' yuh, imagine 200 pages of dis."


"The story didn't start off good for me because its a book written mainly for women and I am a man who enjoys a Tom Clancy novel"


"It is boring because it is about a topic that no one cares for. Stop speaking in ebonics."


"Perhaps the most flawed aspect of Eyes is that it is not written in English. I refuse to concede that the overdone vernacular dialogue contained within is English, particularly as it is fraught with inconsistencies: 'lak' and 'like' are used interchangeably, as are 'yo'' and 'you' and 'mouth' and 'mouf,' adding to the confusion of any reader unfortunate enough to be slogging through the conversations ... Dreadful as the language may be, it at least provides the perfect word to describe the entire book: monstropolous. (My inability to find it in a dictionary strengthens my suspicions that Eyes is written in a language loosely based on, but inferior in structure and consistency to, English.)"


"I feel sorry for any person who has to read this 'book'"


"i wish i could erase all copies of this book from existence
WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH NOT LETTING US RATE IT AS A ZERO. WISH I COULD HAVE. this book was a burden on my soul, then entire time i was forced to read it. it drivels on in such a manner as to make the novel a complete horror to read ... it was such a blandly written piece of trash that a four year old could understand it and hate it as well ... myself and about 30 of my classmates would rather be punched in the gut than forced to think about this for another second. why write a review if i hate it so much you ask? i'll tell you why...it's really late and i'm bored. i'm writing a letter to my teacher and i needed to know how to spell the author's name, so i came here. so to anyone out there that doesn't just think things are good because someone says they are...don't touch this silly novel for the life of you. i'm done now, you can all tell me taht this didn't help you now, to get it off the list of reviews, and how pathetic is that? are you that insecure about the quality of your novel? you should be."


"The author writes in a dialect that is barely legible and makes the story less important than the dialogue. Yes, we get the point - now... can you write in English so I can understand each sentence the first time I read it?"


"Their Eyes Were Reading Boobery
Unless you are an immature tramp I cannot fathom how you could enjoy, relate or even read this nonsense ... That people think this is a great book betrays how foolish the reading public are; seriously, just stick to what Oprah tells you to read, or better, simply plop down in front of the television and watch 'reality.'
...
Am I biased? Yes, completely, I think that the work of women does not compare favorably to what men have achieved in letters ... But there is the converse....I mean, how many great wives, how many good stay-at-home moms have been men?"

Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God III

"A dog with rabies comes out of nowhere, floats up to the guy, bites him, and then floats away into the night.

I still laugh thinking about it."


"Janie (main character) seems to be a tramp who is looking for any guy to please her desires. She hops from one man to another just by their appearance."


"I wouldn't recommend this book to most people because most people I know are part of my race and culture (most but not all), and I feel like it is hard for us to relate and/or identify with Janie."


"I'm not IN liberal arts college anymore; I shouldn't have to READ these sorts of things now ... It's a modern literary classic, and so I feel a rather poor English major for not enjoying it more than I did."


"Janie Crawford is a very obnoxious, outspoken woman"


"It was terrible. The biggest reason, the dialog. The terrible terrible dialog. Hurston was probably never educated as to the good and bad of dialog, but if all your conversation is in that southern dialect,and words are spelled based on their phonetic sound and not because of their actual spelling, well after a few hundred pages reading the book was like nails on a chalk board. This was one of the first things taught to me as a CRW 3013 student ... I believe I took an oath then, back in high school, to never right like that. To never force that punishment on a reader."


"I've never cared for southern accents, anyway. Most of them are irritating."


"One thing I really get annoyed by African-American fiction books from that period of time is that it was common to abuse the English language. My head started hurting from reading all the purposely misspelled words and pronunciations. I know black people of that time and region may not have had the best vocabulary and enunciation but this was ridiculous. I usually like dialogue but this time around, I was begging for the narrator to talk so I didn't have to read the abusive ways to spell words."


"Here's an example that stirred my hormones: 'The men noticed her firm buttocks like she had grape fruits in her hip pockets; the great rope of black hair swinging to her waist and unraveling in the wind like a plume; then her pugnacious breasts trying to bore holes in her shirt. They, the men, were saving with the mind what they lost with the eye...' (pg 2).
Unfortunately the story line didn't follow in the same tradition."


"She marries with little or no consideration, walks out on marriages, and seems unimpeded by either long-distance train fare, Jack Crow laws, or, for that matter, the conventions of standard English."


"After reading this book, I felt as if my intellectual freedom had been ground under by the iron boot of PC liberal thuggery. It's a sad, sad day for literature when a book like this can actually be required reading in schools. It lacked form, character development, and grammatical elegance. Most of all, it attempted to beat the reader to death with the 'plight' of the author."


"This book makes one root fot the Klan"

Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God II

"the denoument was waaayy late in this book."


"I don't fully remember reading this book, but I think I did. And I'm pretty sure it's lame."


"The dialect used in the book ruined it for me. I like proper grammar too much! :D"


"If you're into this book, then good for you, I'm sure you'll make a woman really happy someday."


"one word de-press-ing. too many mishaps, and misfortunes for me to truly enjoy."


"It wasn't deep enough to change me. Meh."


"I'm not a fan of dialect books (Huck Finn, be damned!) ... (If any of my lit professors ever read this review, they may never speak to me again. What lit major doesn't appreciate dialect writing?!)"


"I understand it's grand when talking about black American lit - especially by a woman - but it's just not, in my very humble opinion, all that...good."


"I didn't really understand the point of it. I know it's supposed to be feminist and political and all that, but... ::sigh::"


"incorrect English"


"I felt like this was a pretty typical story of the black woman who overcomes all sorts of hardships and obstacles. The resentment towards whites and men is really what turns me off though."


"I got tired of da po' black folk writing quite quickly."


"I was forced to read every dialect-infected word of it."


"It is written in 'slave language'"


"I absolutely could not get past the dialect in this book. Every character sounded like a complete moron no matter what they were saying"


"the title should read 'dey eyez wuz watchin god.' i really can't stand reading dialect. i have an imagination, you don't have to spell things phonetically for me to understand that there is an accent involved. words like 'ain't' and other improper grammar ('they's,' we be, etc.) i can handle. but don't insult me."

HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME WITH YOUR SLAVE LANGUAGE

Zora Neale Hurston - Their Eyes Were Watching God

"Errrghhhhh. I'm black. And a whore. Life sucks, feel bad for me."


"terrible. simply terrible."


"Some pieces of history should remain distant and forgotten."


"So bad. Just so, so bad."


"You have to go. through. every. word. one. by. fucking. one."


"I gave up ... I read some of the spoilers, and Janie seems like the kind of protagonist that usually makes me want to scream ... Janie seemed precociously sexual ... I could just tell that this was going to head down the road of some tragic Woman Who Loves Men Who Hate Women plot. No, thank you!"


"This book was not great because it did not interest me as much as some other people i will come across."


"I realize this is a classic, but why? A story about a flighty, immature women who finally finds 'love' (i.e. LUST) in an equally immature and controlling man? Not exactly Romantic. The story seems scrambled and unrelatable. Not really what I would consider a great novel."


"If you're a fan of African-American literature, or literature about how much women suffered back in the day, then this probably holds some interest. If you're not, consider this literary ebola. I'm *really* not the target audience on this one, as I'm a white male, and one who primarily reads fantasy and horror at that, so I found the plot to be *beyond* repetitive."


"This novel is nothing more than a book showcasing the worst aspects about one's ethnic and racial group. (The incident with the mule, Jody's control of the town, and even the characters dismissal of those 'Indians' makes the characters unlikable and ignorant)"


"Tea-Cake is a patently ridiculous name for any place and era."


"I have no idea why I read well over 3/4 of this book before toasting it. The only sense that this book is a 'classic' is that it is a classic example of how not to write a book. UGH! Thanks Jen for making me come to my senses and toast this book (I should have talked to you sooner!)"


"I couldn't force myself to read it so I probably just read a synopsis on the internet. This book did not contribute to my education one bit."


"I wanted to read this one...I tried to read this one and got a headache from my mind sounding out the words. She writes so that the characters sound like they have a heavy southern accent mixed with bad grammar which makes reading it a challenge. While I was reading I was translating it into English and that is not something I want to do when I am ready to read after along day. too tiring. Next."


"It's an obnoxious device that only serves to make any semblance of meaning completely opaque and causes all of the characters to sound like illiterate oafs. 'Love is lak da sea,' my ass."


"Never in my life have I read a worse book ... Even if you understand the incomprehensible english, still pass on this book. It's just that bad."