[Hac-announce] January 2016 Book Discussion: "Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Zora Neale Hurston

[Kevin Gough or Paula Jones]

Our book for January is Their Eyes Were Watching God by African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston. The discussion will take place Saturday, January 16, 2016 at 2 pm in the library of the Unitarian Society of New Haven at 700 Hartford Turnpike, Hamden.
 
>From Wikipedia:
This 1937 novel is [Ms. Hurston's] best known work. The novel narrates main character Janie Crawford's "ripening from a vibrant, but voiceless, teenage girl into a woman with her finger on the trigger of her own destiny." Set in central and southern Florida in the early 20th century, the novel was initially poorly received for its rejection of racial uplift literary prescriptions. Today, it has come to be regarded as a seminal work in both African-American and women’s literature. TIME included the novel in its 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.

“A deeply soulful novel that comprehends love and cruelty, and separates the big people from the small of heart, without ever losing sympathy for those unfortunates who don’t know how to live properly.” —Zadie Smith, novelist

Supplementary reading for the discussion is the chapter "Religion" from Hurston's autobiography Dust Tracks on a Road.

As we are in winter, snow date for this discussion is Saturday, January 23. Watch for announcements if there is inclement weather on or near the discussion date. 

Both books are readily available in numerous libraries around the state.

Refreshments will be served.

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.cthumanist.org/pipermail/hac-announce/attachments/20151222/1acf2415/attachment.html>