Tag Archives: 1930s

Their Eyes Were Watching God: A Review

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston
My rating: 4 of 5 star

This was the Life’s Library community book choice at the end of 2020. It is classic from the 1930s by Zora Neale Hurston. It is thought to be feminist literature because the main character is presented as a strong female character.

The story follows a woman named Janie. Raised by her grandmother who was a former slave, Janie was the product of a probable rape, which leads her mother to want very little to do with her. Janie grows up and marries the man who her grandmother sets her up to marry, but the marriage doesn’t last long. She gets married another two times in her life, and this book follows her life throughout those marriages.

People around her like to put her in boxes that she doesn’t quite fit into. While at first, she tries hard to meet the expectations of others, she eventually learns to trust herself and find contentment in the choices she makes, no longer caring about what other people may think. It is empowering, but also heartbreaking, as near the end of the book, she has to make very hard decisions that bring sad consequences. But her resilience through everything is beautiful.

This book wasn’t what I expected. Most of the classics I know are flowery in their descriptions, but Hurston really focuses on dialect, conversation, and moves the plot forward this way. This would definitely be a good audiobook to listen to (I actually listened to parts of this book instead of reading it completely). The story is meant to be read out loud. Very entertaining and definitely recommend.

There is a profanity in the book. Sexual content includes mentions of rape and kissing. Violence includes mentions of rape, whippings, there is a gun involved in a skirmish that ends up pointing in Janie’s face, and there are deaths and descriptions of dead bodies being buried after a hurricane.

The Last Train to Key West: A Review

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The Last Train to Key West by Chanel Cleeton
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

It’s a story of three women with vastly different lives and a hurricane headed for Florida that is going to upend every one of them.  At the beginning of the book, their lives cross at a diner in Key West.  Each also seems to have a knight in shining armor that will help them navigate through the story.  There are also some abusive husband triggers with one of the women.

Helen is a pregnant waitress who is with an abusive husband.  She is afraid that if she tries to escape, Tom will come looking for her and hurt her or the baby.  There was also some references to previous pregnancies that ended in loss, so she is also constantly afraid she will lose this baby.  Mirta is from Cuba and newly wed to someone she doesn’t know.  Her dad had backed the wrong political power and after the politics shifted, she is told that she has to marry this gangster with ties to the new regime in hopes that it will save the family.  And then Elizabeth, a once wealthy debutante whose family lost all their money in the stock market crash.  She is engaged to someone but has run to Florida to try to find a man who will hopefully save her from this engagement and save the family that is falling apart.

There is profanity, but it’s not a significant part of the dialogue.  There are kissing scenes and implications of more, but nothing quite graphic.  And the violent content comes from the abusive relationship, and also a violent assault that ends in a death, as well as all the dead from this hurricane.

Overall, the story is fascinating.  I had never heard of this hurricane that happened so soon after the stock market crash of 1929.  It was interesting to see what else was going on at the time that we don’t usually discuss in history books.  The story felt alive and moved well with the looming storm approaching.  Plus, I love how everything connected in the end and there was a sense of hope for the future.