Slightly ashamed I wasn't aware of Zora Neale Hurston before hearing of the Peter Bagge biography. This is a beautiful book, set in early 20th century, telling the story of a Janie Crawford, an African American woman in her 40s recounting her life in Florida. The protagonist is very appealing —
a headstrong woman who has little interest in society's ideas of what she should be doing. Predominantly set in African American communities it uses a vibrant vernacular throughout, which grounds the book in a time and place, and keeps the words sparking off the page. ( )

Second time reading and I rate it the same 3 stars. This time, however, I really took the time to understand and get involved in Janie's life. I found it much more rewarding second time around. I enjoyed this one though it isn't high on my books to recommend.

The character development of Janie was quite well done. I found Tea Cake a bit "too perfect". The end seemed so rushed to go from a tragedy to her place of peace and enlightenment. I would have enjoyed a bit more between the two. ( )

Love is hard. Living can be hard. But there can be beauty and happiness. The story is a vignette of a different time. But the themes are timeless. ( )

[I listened to the audiobook version narrated by Ruby Dee]

Phenomenal.

I'm not sure if it was the fact that I listened instead of reading it, but Ruby Dee's touch to the characterization of each person in this story made it. Without it, I doubt I would have enjoyed it as much. It is a period piece come to life, with all of its colors. Listening to this book was like listening to a grandmother tell her story on a small porch while sipping lemonade or iced tea. There are rough parts, there are happy parts, and in the end, she is (somehow) right there in front of you, and you now know how she, your magnificent grandmother, got there.

I can't say if this is a must read, but I can promise that it is a must-listen. ( )

I wanted to like this when I read it, although I found that I didn’t, because I was reading it to read “good” lit and be inclusive, and I found that it was about people and love and such, and being about Blacks I wanted to include wasn’t enough to make me get over my personality types things with friends and lovers, you know.

I’d probably enjoy it more if I read it again, but if a similar sort of box opened up in my reading schedule I’d probs read a third Toni Morrison or maybe a second Zora Neale, you know.

It certainly is good lit, like Jane Austen, although I suppose maybe it’s more like Dickens via the issue of dialect, kinda wandering over towards the borderline of old pop lit, you know, although it is still more like any other good-lit friends and lovers book than a ghetto romance or Twilight, not that the latter two types are inherently evil, and some people might even find them easier to read.

I think that a lot of intellectuals who read books like this mask what they really feel, if they even know themselves, and then there’s the issue of it being about a Black chick which can kinda exacerbate the thing where you distance/hide, you know. People do that with Greek stuff, too, though—you have this idea of Homer, right, that has nothing to do with the swords clashing or anything else about the poems. (shrugs) But when I first read this book I was an “intellectual”, and there were many things I would have liked to hide if that had been my standing policy, and it was embarrassing not to, you know. (I’ve deleted that review now, since it no longer reflects me.)

(shrugs) But I don’t know. Back in the 1920s, say, even the Black people in this book sided with the white men’s knowledge over the Native people’s intuition regarding the coming storm, you know….

Anyway, the point is, Janie had a number of relationships, and there was good and bad, but one at least had very strong positive elements. It was very painful and mortal, but in the end, I guess it was worth it. Tea Cake was a jerk at times, but he was also a sweet thing.

(shrugs) One of the few positive things they taught us in nerd class was that a thing about a book shouldn’t be a summary, but then also, contrariwise, after having read a book you should have some idea what it was about, you know. Not in terms of plot summary, but….

I mean, if you don’t like “good lit” you don’t like it, and if old good pop lit or whatever isn’t fun for you, it isn’t fun. But if you do like it, presumably you liked something about the book, not this bronze abstraction of the book, you know…. And you know, sometimes it’s harder to like people who don’t live in your town, but if you’re honest you might just learn that they’re people just like you, just with different personality patterns, right.