https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/Recent content in Reviews on Zora Neale HurstonHugo -- gohugo.ioen-usThe Official Website of Zora Neale HurstonWed, 20 Nov 2024 21:28:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/herod-tayari-jones/Wed, 20 Nov 2024 21:28:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/herod-tayari-jones/The Life of Herod the Great—like Hurston herself—is a masterpiece, a miracle, and a marvel. In other words, treasure for the whole world.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nytbr-on-you-don-t-know/Wed, 02 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nytbr-on-you-don-t-know/You Don’t Know Us Negroes” adds immeasurably to our understanding of Hurston, who was a tireless crusader in all her writing, and ahead of her time…https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nyt-on-you-don-t-know-1/Fri, 14 Jan 2022 05:00:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nyt-on-you-don-t-know-1/Especially striking here is the breadth of Hurston’s intellect on display. She peppers her essays with such exhaustive literary, historical, biographical, political, artistic, educational, religious references that if readers were simply to follow the footnotes alone (as compiled by West and Gates), they would gain a valuable education.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/bookpage-on-hitting/Fri, 22 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/bookpage-on-hitting/These narratives comprise a rich tapestry of Hurston’s matchless vision and talent.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/the-guardian-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/Sun, 09 Feb 2020 05:00:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/the-guardian-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/All of these 21 stories are enlivened by the author’s wickedly funny, sprightly dialogue.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/edwidge-danticat/Mon, 16 Apr 2018 17:42:42 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/edwidge-danticat/Zora’s work will be felt for years in the works of many generations of writers.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/alice-walker-on-their-eyes-were-watching-god/Tue, 16 Apr 2013 21:28:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/alice-walker-on-their-eyes-were-watching-god/There is no book more important to me than this one.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/booklist-on-herod/Sat, 16 Nov 2024 21:28:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/booklist-on-herod/Full of adventure, glamour, and historical figures, including Herod’s close friends Julius Caesar and Marc Antony, this is a fascinating addition to the Hurston canon.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/washington-post-on-you-don-t-know/Tue, 01 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/washington-post-on-you-don-t-know/Dazzling… provocative, funny, bawdy, informative and outrageous. Gates and West have put together a comprehensive collection that lets Hurston shine as a writer, a storyteller and an American iconoclast.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/washington-post-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/washington-post-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/Fans and scholars of Hurston’s work and the uninitiated alike will find many delights in these complex, thoughtful and wickedly funny portraits of black lives and communities… [Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick] is a significant testament to the enduring resonance of black women’s writing.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/vulture-on-you-don-t-know/Wed, 02 Mar 2022 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/vulture-on-you-don-t-know/Hurston is bold, honest, and provocative, as always, whether she’s pontificating on the ideological mirage of white feminism or insisting that school integration did less than we thought to improve Black students’ educations. The lyrical and uncompromising prose in this collection offers a window into the world of one of our greatest literary minds.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/booklist-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/booklist-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/With biting wit, Hurston gets to the heart of the human condition…her rediscovered stories will electrify.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/publishers-weekly-on-hitting/Fri, 08 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/publishers-weekly-on-hitting/An illuminating and delightful study of a canonical writer finding her rhythm.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/cultured-vultures-on-hitting/Tue, 12 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/cultured-vultures-on-hitting/A reminder of why literature is so important…These short stories capture the essence of the African American life at the time, and offer a glimpse into how she became one of the more influential writers of the Harlem Renaissance.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/time-magazine/Wed, 06 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/time-magazine/Decades on, this new collection is a powerful reminder of her lasting resonance.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/miami-times/Sat, 16 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/miami-times/Read, and you’ll almost wish you were slumped on a wooden chair on Jim’s porch on a hot summer day. Read, because authenticity oozes from every page here and you can’t help but like the men and women in the tales. Read, as author Zora Neale Hurston’s wit shines between biting narrations and comments…https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/christian-science-monitor-on-you-don-t-know/Mon, 28 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/christian-science-monitor-on-you-don-t-know/…creates a powerful and nuanced mosaic of Black culture.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nyt-on-you-don-t-know/Wed, 02 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nyt-on-you-don-t-know/I liked this book…Reading Hurston, you always wonder what shape her dignity will take next. Her style and spark were her own.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/kirkus-on-you-don-t-know/Tue, 01 Feb 2022 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/kirkus-on-you-don-t-know/Vigorous writings from a controversial and important cultural critic.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/philadelphia-tribune-on-you-don-t-know/Mon, 31 Jan 2022 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/philadelphia-tribune-on-you-don-t-know/This is a carry-it-everywhere-with-you kind of book, perfect for times when you need some introspection as diversion. “You Don’t Know Us Negroes” is like that, and that’s just the way it is.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/new-york-times-book-review-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/Wed, 13 Jan 2021 00:00:00 -0500https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/new-york-times-book-review-on-hitting-a-straight-lick/Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick helps illuminate Hurston’s path to iconic status…Add [Hurston’s] matchless powers of observation, exemplary fidelity to idiomatic speech and irresistible engagement with folklore, and the outcome is a collection of value to more than Hurston completists. Any addition to her awe-inspiring oeuvre should be met with open arms.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/alice-walker-on-barracoon/Sat, 05 May 2018 16:47:35 -0400https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/alice-walker-on-barracoon/Zora Neale Hurston’s genius has once again produced a Maestrapiece.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nicole-dennis-benn-on-barracoon/Sat, 05 May 2018 16:46:03 -0400https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/nicole-dennis-benn-on-barracoon/Barracoon is a powerful, breathtakingly beautiful, and at times, heart wrenching, account of one man’s story, eloquently told in his own language. Zora Neale Hurston gives Kossola control of his narrative— a gift of freedom and humanity. It completely reinforces for me the fact that Zora Neale Hurston was both a cultural anthropologist and a truly gifted, and compassionate storyteller, who sat in the sometimes painful silence with Kossola and the depth and breadth of memory as a slave.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/tracy-k.-smith-on-barracoon/Sat, 05 May 2018 16:43:48 -0400https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/tracy-k.-smith-on-barracoon/That Zora Neale Hurston should find and befriend Cudjo Lewis, the last living man with firsthand memory of capture in Africa and captivity in Alabama, is nothing shy of a miracle. Barracoon is a testament to the enormous losses millions of men, women and children endured in both slavery and freedom—a story of urgent relevance to every American, everywhere.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/angela-flournoy-on-barracoon/Sat, 05 May 2018 16:34:55 -0400https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/angela-flournoy-on-barracoon/Barracoon reinforces what those of us who love Hurston’s work have known all along: her keen intellect and curiosity was only surpassed by her genuine empathy for her subjects. This book is not just an account of one man’s survival in the face of atrocity, it’s a celebration of language and tradition; a clear labor of love.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/the-new-yorker-on-moses-man-of-the-mountain/Mon, 16 Apr 2018 22:24:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/the-new-yorker-on-moses-man-of-the-mountain/The real thing, warm, humorous, poetic.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/carl-sandburg-on-jonah-s-gourd-vine/Mon, 16 Apr 2018 22:20:04 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/carl-sandburg-on-jonah-s-gourd-vine/A bold and beautiful book, many a page priceless and unforgettable.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/boston-globe-on-every-tongue-got-to-confess/Mon, 16 Apr 2018 22:06:51 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/boston-globe-on-every-tongue-got-to-confess/An extraordinary treasure.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/new-york-times-book-review-on-tell-my-horse/Mon, 16 Apr 2018 21:58:38 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/new-york-times-book-review-on-tell-my-horse/Strikingly dramatic, yet simple and unrestrained…an unusual and intensely interesting book richly packed with strange information.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/the-new-yorker-on-dust-tracks-on-the-road/Mon, 16 Apr 2018 21:39:31 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/the-new-yorker-on-dust-tracks-on-the-road/Warm, witty, imaginative…This is a rich and winning book.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/roger-d.-abrahams-on-mules-and-men/Tue, 08 Jan 2008 23:34:00 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/roger-d.-abrahams-on-mules-and-men/Simply the most exciting book on black folklore and culture I have ever read.https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/saturday-review-of-literature-on-seraph-on-the-sawnee/Mon, 28 Jan 1991 23:30:16 +0000https://www.zoranealehurston.com/review/saturday-review-of-literature-on-seraph-on-the-sawnee/A simple, colorfully written, and moving novel.