If you haven’t read it.

Reading Time: < 1 minute

Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God has been said to deserve a place in the American literary canon alongside the best of Faulkner, Fitzgerald and Hemingway.

It is the tale of Janie Crawford, a beautiful, independent black woman living in Florida a few short generations after the abolition of slavery. She searches for her own identity and learns about true love from three very different men.

This is a beautiful, lyrical novel and an essential piece of American literature — a definite must read.

“Several men collected at Tea Cake’s house and sat around stuffing courage into each other’s ears. Janie baked a big pan of beans and something she called sweet biscuits and they all managed to be happy enough. Most of the great flame-throwers were there and naturally, handling big John de Conquer and his works. How he done everything big on earth, then went up tuh heben without dying atall. Went up there picking a guitar and got all de angels doing the ring-shout all around the throne. Then everybody but God and Old Peter flew off on a flying race to Jericho and back and John de Conquer won the race; went on down to hell, beat the old devil and passed out ice water to everybody down there. Somebody tried to say that it was a mouth organ harp that John was playing, but the rest of them would not hear that. Don’t care how good anybody could play a harp, God would rather to hear a guitar.”

For more information about the author go to zoranealehurston.com