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Title: Jonah's Gourd Vine by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0-06-091651-6 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 28 February, 1990 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.83 (6 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Shaded by the vine
Comment: John Buddy Pearson's life got off to a rocky start. His stepfather resented him for his light skin and the fact that another man's blood ran through his veins, and often picked fights with him. John worked hard in the cotton fields on their sharecropping tract, but little could be done to please his stepfather.
John always longed to see what life was like "on the other side of the tracks", so after a particularly serious brawl with his stepfather, he decided to go for it. He moved across the bridge, where children went to school in their free time, and his real father, Alf Pearson, resided on his large plantation. Alf encouraged John to attend the local colored school in his spare moments, and it was here that John first lay eyes on the smart and beautiful, albeit young, Lucy Potts. John, with his high yellow skin and godlike stature, was a favorite among the ladies on the Pearson estate. However, he cast their advances aside as he pined for Lucy.
John and Lucy eventually married and moved to Eatonville, Florida, a "whole town uh nothing but colored folks", where John was called to preach the gospel, honing his already strong speaking skills. John was still a favorite with the ladies, and in a position to do so, he strayed from the mores he was supposed to uphold and engaged in illicit affairs. Thus begun the descension of our character, as his deviant ways became exposed and no longer shrouded in his notoriety.
Zora Neale Hurston's first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine marks the beginning of a dazzling writer's craft. Peppered with the southern dialect that Hurston is so well-known for, it was, at times, a bit unclear as to what the characters were saying. I found myself saying sentences, and even paragraphs, aloud to discern their meaning. Lucy's character is particularly strong throughout the story. John's character, to me, represents both the "good guy" and later "the bad guy," as I was taken through his struggles, comeupances, and downfalls. I believe everyone should read Hurston, if only for her superb use of language and, in this case, biblical themes. Jonah's Gourd Vine is a great place to start.
Reviewed by CandaceK
The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating: 5
Summary: Loving and unsparing fictional portrait of Hurston's parents
Comment: Every bit as enjoyable as "Their Eyes Were Watching God," Hurston's first novel recounts the rise-and-fall trajectory of John "Buddy" Pearson from a backwoods adolescent to pillar of an all-black community to a philandering preacher. What gives her debut special resonance is that it is a wholly undisguised portrait of her family--not even the names of her siblings have been changed--and she incorporates much of the black folklore, Caribbean mysticism, and African spirituality she encountered in her scholarly research.
Hurston enviably manages to present her father and her long-suffering mother with all their strengths and weaknesses; her account is unsparingly brutal, yearningly affectionate, and remarkably nonjudgmental. (Her portrayal of her wicked, hoodoo-leaning stepmother is less even-handed; here Hurston takes the opportunity for revenge.) A sign of her achievement is that it is hard to tell where fact ends and fiction begins (for example, Hurston's father died in 1917, but John Pearson's story continues through the 1920s).
Even though the story never lags, I found the representation of black Southern dialect hard-going for the first few chapters. After a while, though, you get used to the cadences and colloquialisms, and the reader's diligence is repaid tenfold. "Jonah's Gourd Vine" is one of those surprising discoveries you wished more people had read.
Rating: 4
Summary: Fantastic
Comment: Hurston is incredible. Jonah's Gourd Vine is a book that everyone should read. I couldn't get my nose out of it. Look at the story of Jonah in the Bible to find some parallels within Hurston's text.
INCREDIBLE.
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Title: Seraph on the Suwanee by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060973595 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Moses Man of the Mountain by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060919949 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 16 January, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Mules and Men by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060916486 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 28 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Tell My Horse : Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060916494 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 28 February, 1990 List Price(USD): $13.50 |
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Title: The Complete Stories by Zora Neale Hurston ISBN: 0060921714 Publisher: Perennial Pub. Date: 14 February, 1996 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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