Their Eyes Were Watching God is a novel about choices in life. It is a love story with the message that you should live life the way you need to live to be happy. For some people that would be safe, expected decisions. For others that means grasping opportunities in their paths despite the rules their neighbors follow. It sometimes involves exploring the unknown. If you've followed your heart, in the end you know you made the right choice even though times or situations may have been difficult.

This is a story by a respected black author written for a black audience. It has more dialect in the dialogue than any book I've read. I'm not a fan of dialect because it slows the reading too much and requires adjustment, but the dialect would have been more familiar to her audience and less of a problem. I did enjoy the story anyway, and there are some nice metaphorical moments.

related-Black history, African American author, the Great Depression of the 1930s, migratory labor, life choices, Jim Crow laws, love relationships, classic
RL=YA-adult   *Would not have been considered historical fiction when written.