Mike’s Reviews > Their Eyes Were Watching God > Status Update

Maybe I don't feel such a distance from Janie. Maybe what I was seeing here wasn't distance, just a more subtle way of being close to her. What I'm saying is, this ending is making me feel a lot of emotions.

There's definitely a lot going on this book. Yet, for some reason, all I can think of to say is to reiterate how good the prose and dialogue are. It's going to take a while to develop coherent thoughts on this.

I feel like I'm missing a lot of the symbolism in this book, and what makes it powerful. Time to read some analysis!

I have to say, I feel a little distant from Janie. Maybe it's just because the dialogue takes a lot of effort for me to read. And don't get me wrong, she's a very well-developed character. I'm not quite sure what it is that puts me at an arm's length from her.

I really love the dialogue and the characters, but I will say, the story isn't doing that much for me. It's not bad, exactly, it's just kind of slow and not that compelling. This is still a very good book, but it's not as great as my initial impressions of it were.

Alternating between this and Hungry is like spending one night at the Ritz and spending the next in a Burger King bathroom.

(To be clear, this is the good book, and Hungry is the abysmal one.)

Janie is such a well-written character. It's been a long time since I've read something this subtle and well-crafted. It is genuinely hard to believe Hurston wrote this in only six weeks.

I may have been a bit too quick to call this one of my favorite books. This isn't a bad book by any means, it's actually quite good, but it's a little too low-key (so far) for me to call it my favorite of the year or anything. It's more just... pleasant company. It's enjoyable and profound, without being hugely impactful. (Again, so far - I've been told this changes.)

The writing and dialogue are both very evocative. I'm still waiting to see where the story will go, so I'm not exactly excited about that yet, but this is certainly a very well-written novel.

I don't want to assume too early, but if this book keeps going in this direction, I'm about ready to declare it the best book I've been assigned since starting high school. I am loving every second of this so far.