Jonah's Gourd Vine
A Novel

"His courage was broken. He lay there in bed and looked back over days that had had their trial and failure. They had all been glorious tomorrows once gilded with promise, but when they had arrived, they turned out to be just days with no more fulfillment- no more glad realities than those that had......more

This is an astonishing book, full of richness and sorrow and grace, as life is. I need to read more Hurston, particularly her autobiography--I appreciated Henry Louis Gates's Afterword here. I grew up in Florida and rode the train through Sanford--the setting of much of this book--a number of times......more

Read this book to review the similarities between it and Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain and they are definitely there. Ms. Zora knows how to tell a story. The language wasn’t hard to get at all. It was actually intriguing because the type of man that John Pearson is — damn. Definitely the prot......more

Still quality work from Zora Neale Hurston, but not my personal favorite. These characters - I just wanted to whip both of them for being so dang blind and silly and repeating the SAME mistakes over and over! I tell you the truth, if ZNH wanted to show somebody reaping what they sowed, I reckon this......more

Hurston’s premiere is a riveting portrait of a “yaller” black man (born to a white father), cast out by his stepfather to a new life across the creek, from years of poverty and wifely strife to legendary status as a preacher. A sharp, unjudging portrait, John Pearson’s character is one of self-indul......more