I enjoyed most of the stories, especially "Hurricane" and "The Gilded Six-Bits". Hurricane illustrated this black family/community perception of the original native of the land, Indians, and then to realized how foolish they were not taking heed of the First People of the land warning and believing the teaching of "the white man". The core of the story is love, the love that Janie and Tea Cake shared. This story showed strong affection, strong family ties, basic human intrinsic love that exited in those days, circa 1946, between people of color that is not portray in today's stories. It is just wonderful, and so amusing the way "The Honorable" Zora Neale Hurston inflicted her humor on my karma. I wish this story and others, becomes or is a part of the American Literature taught in schools, from junior high to college level.

This collection of stories are indelible in my memory. My only regret is not knowing about Ms. Hurston until after so many decades consuming traditional fiction and missing the exposure to Black American Literature. Another regret is the neglect meted over the years that caused her teachings fallen by the wayside.

Prior to Zora Neale Hurston, the rich well of black folklore was laargely
written by white writers such as Joel Chandler Harris and Roark Bradford among others, with varying degrees of accuracy. Most literate and educated blacks were too ashamed of their folk cutlure to write about it until ZNH came on the scene.

This is a fine collection of some of her best short fiction. "John Redding Goes to Sea," written during her college days, accurately describes the life of an intelligent young black man feeling trapped by the illiteracy around him. "The EatonVille Anthology" is a rich collection of anecdotes about her hometown of Eatonville, Fla. "Drenched in Light" is about a free-spirited young black girl and her exasperated mother. "The Bone of Contention" is an old handed-down folklore that inspired her aborted play with Langston Hughes MULE BONE.

I enjoyed the variety of short stories. My favorites are "The Gilded Six Bits and Their Eyes Are Watching God.

My favorite passage from the Gilded Six Bits:

"One night Joe came back home around midnight & complained of pains in the back. He asked Missie to rub him down with liniment. It had been three months since Missie had touched his body(her husband caught her in bed with another mad - Big Sistahs note) and it all seemed strange. But she rubbed him. Grateful chance. Before morning youth triumphed and Missie exulted."

What a lovely way to say they had relations - Big Sistha Pat

Their Eyes Are Watching God

I simply love this book. I love the language. It is so poetic. The following passages stood out for me:

"Naw. We been tuhgether round two years. If you kin see de light at day break, you don't keer if you die at dust. It's so many people never, seen de light at all. Ah wuz fumblin' round and God opened de door."

This passage for me is so beautiful and true. So many people die having not experienced real love. Big Sistah Pat.

"The monstropolous beast had left his bed. The two hundred miles an hour wind had lose his chains. He seized hold of his dikes and ran forward until he met the quarters; uprooted them like grass and rushed on after his supposed-to-be conquerors, rolling the dikes, rolling the houses, rolling the people in the houses a long with other timbers. The sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel."

"De lake is comin