Their Eyes Were Watching God
By: Zora Neale Hurston / Narrated By: Ruby Dee
Length: 6 hrs and 44 mins
Wow! Ruby Dee makes a good story a masterpiece!
I remember reading the print copy of Their Eyes Were Watching God oh, like, AGES ago and really liking it. But now? After listening to Ruby Dee narrate it?
WOW!
I have never heard anything so lively, so heartfelt, so mischievous, so passionate. Every single character is brought to life. It’s an absolutely fearless performance and makes me wanna snap up anything and everything Dee’s ever narrated.
Hurston’s prose is lush and poetical, with one of a kind phrasing. Dee delivers every single word and expands on them to where you feel you’re smelling the fragrance of the blossoms that inspire Janie, to where you feel you’re watching the gold and black of the bees that entrance Janie. When I read the book, I understood Janie. When I listened to the audiobook, I really felt the wildness of Janie’s heart and soul. Understanding vs. feeling: the difference between reading a great story and listening to a masterpiece.
What I really liked was how I came from thinking Janie looked for too much of herself from men to realizing that she had a wild heart that came to life when she met the RIGHT man. I didn't begrudge her looking for love at all, and I felt only happiness that despite the tragedy of the story, she found honest and true love after all.
The story follows her from being a young girl, to getting married off young to an older man who “spoils” her for a moment only to want to break her to plow the next. She leaves him for her second husband, also older, who places her on a pedestal only to leave her there, stranded, unable to be part of a community she’d very much like to join. She’s forced to sit by, silent, even as she’d like to share her lovely sense of humor. And even as the second places her above, he also takes her down with slights and humiliations.
Enter the third, this time a younger man, a big-hearted gambler. And here is where Janie finds her best self. She joins him in the fields, picking beans, and to her it’s a joy because they get to be near to each other. Reading it, I guess I got that Janie was happy. But listening to Ruby Dee perform Janie’s voice and the voices of the community? I really, really got that what they had was special and that Janie’s life was filled with love and friendship.
Their Eyes Were Watching God is about people at their worst, people at their best, people at their worst again. And through it all is Janie, a confused young girl, a thwarted young woman, and finally a strong grown woman, ready to live the rest of her life on her own terms because she’s known love. It’s a tragedy, but it’s ultimately beautiful and fulfilling.
And once again? No, really! You’ve GOTTA hear Ruby Dee!!!
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