Hurston’s recognition as a key black author of the 20th Century has had its ups and downs. For anyone wanting to get to know Hurston, this is a good place to begin. This book gathers both published and unpublished short fiction from 1921 to 1955. While familiar with some of her work, I was grateful for the afterword by Henry Louis Gates to help put things in perspective. Gates observes that: “The dark obscurity into which her career …lapsed reflects her staunchly independent political stances ra...

I was surprised to find I really enjoyed these stories by Hurston. I haven't read anything by her since Their Eyes Were Watching God. These stories were very engaging. For a black activist and feminist, I found her stories very entertaining. John Redding Goes to Sea was sad. Drenched in Light was fun, and showed how humans are. Spunk was kind of scary. Magnolia Flower was very good, like a tall tale. Muttsy was kind of pointless. The Eatonville Anthology kind of gave an overview of different peo...

Hurston's stories are wonderful and varied, from current culture and fictional history (for her). An anthropologist, she has amazing attention to detail concerning history, particularly Biblical events. Best of all is her dedication to local slang and dialects, letting the character's true voices come out. It's a good look at one of the finest writers of the Harlem Renaissance.

I've just started reading Zora Neale Hurston. I began with Their Eyes Were Watching God, and I really enjoyed it. I love Alice Walker's work, and was interested to hear that Walker contributed to the 'rediscovery' of Zora Neale Hurston's work. One of the things I really like about Hurston's stories is her cultural approach to storytelling. She was trained as an anthropologist, was a student of Franz Boas (often referred to as the father of modern anthropology) and a contemporary of Ruth Benedict...

“Sweat,” “Uncle Monday,” and “John Redding Goes to Sea” are standouts. Love her deployment of black magic—hoodoo—in her work. Gives it a mythic and fantastical vibe that stays with you. She dabbles in biblical narrative as well, which makes you wonder what she would’ve done with a fantasy series. It took us awhile to recognize her genius, but it’s clear why her work is considered classic.

muttsy , conscience of the court, john redding goes to sea, sweat & Even Now you cooking with gas....Zora had this awesome ability of showing us who we were ...I love her depictions of The south & the venacular she wrote with...this is a must read & must have!

Wow. Reading this collection was like partaking in a tasting menu at a Michelin star restaurant. Variety and subtly, surprising combinations and deft presentation. A full, and excellent literary meal. I have not encountered language like this in some time. The introduction and afterword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are added treats (should I stick with the dinner metaphor?? Consider these the aperitif and digestif). This quote from the introduction neatly describes one of the hallmarks of Hurston’s...

Zora Neale Hurston’s collection of short stories is a collection of in-depth character studies. Every story features one or multipe fleshed-out characers that I almost feel like I know personally by the end of each story and the whole collection. She draws inspiration for many of her stories from people she actually knew, particularly from where she grew up. “The Eatonville Anthology,” a collection of brief vignettes detailing members of the community of Eatonville, introduces us to many charact...

Wonderful gift for character development. Accents are really thick, but man, she tells a good story. I am hooked.

Wonderful writer! I didn't finish all her short stories but will as the summer rolls on. Great afternoon reading.

I spent a couple of months reading a couple of stories here, a couple there, in between a series of other books, and finally decided to return it to the library after having finish just about half the volume. I had been wanting to read The Bone of Contention ever since I heard the story about Hurston and Langston Hughes' ill-fated collaboration on a Broadway musical based on the story. Finally getting to read it was quite satisfying, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. In fact, all the stories I manage...

I am so grateful so many of Zora Neale Hurston's works survived. Several were burned or otherwise destroyed and Hurston died in obscurity. These are a wonderful example of her talent for capturing the Southern (Floridan) black poor people of the 1930's and 40's. Her using their dialect when speaking adds to the story and makes these people come alive. It is her masterful use of language that make me care about these people and look forward to the next story. I'm purposefully choosing to read thi...

I used to shy away from her writing when I was younger, mainly because I couldn't understand/follow the dialect in which she wrote. As I've gotten older, I now appreciate the authenticity of her stories, with the dialect adding to that authenticity. Some of these short stories made me laugh out loud, others made me reflect, while others stirred a flurry of emotions... some did all three at the same time.

I enjoy most of Hurston's work and her stories are no different. I like the contrast of work available with portions from her novels and elsewhere. The fact that she studied Anthropology always added a level of depth and intrigue to the characters and settings in her work.

Magnificent work. Particularly considering the time and by whom it was written. As a folklorist she presents her tales humainly without being preachy, but the lessons of individuality/inequaltiy, and the ironies of society are potently and endearingly delivered.

I love love the way Zora Neale Hurston writes. She is amazing and her stories are simple but really touch the heart.

An excellent collection of stories bounded together to create a wonderful book. At first, I was speed reading the book, my usual way for fiction, but I had difficulty comprehending the colorful black language used. This language was so powerful that I decided to read slowly and digest every sentence. I realized it was closely related to patois, which formed the riot for my translation. I enjoyed most of the stories, especially "Hurricane" and "The Gilded Six-Bits". Hurricane illustrated this bla...

This is an uneven mix, but there’s plenty to enjoy for fans of Zora Neale Hurston. Her anthropologist’s eye shows up in lots of the stories here, as she samples liberally from folk tales, while at the same time, describing the people telling the tales, and the communities they’ve built. The stories often tell of the comeuppance of local bullies, some by supernatural means. Many of the pieces are very funny, and I loved the one where she imitates biblical language to tell the story of a young man...

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/2140983.html[return][return]This is, as I hoped, an awfully good collection. There are some journeyman pieces about love, lust and death in a small town; there are some awesome character sketches, a great story written in Harlem slang, and an unfinished novel telling the story of John the Baptist's execution from Herodias' point of view. I chose the quote above, from an account of a black person being wrongfully prosecuted for attacking a white man, for its eerie re...

Most of these stories read as fairy tales or popular fiction. They're interesting in that a lot of them are curiously deracialized, they don't struggle or rail at society, but merely picture people within it.Beyond the use of dialect and occasional injections of voodoo, you could almost make the characters any race and the stories would still work. And there is a certain shock in reading stories with rich white saviours and poor black villains that don't feel stereotyped or mean.But this commitm...

Perfect for my transit journeys this next week. Her 'Their Eyes' still resonates from when I re-read it last fall, am delighted to have more to read of her.---Have read 5 or 6 so far, I really like them. Have been reading anthologies of short stories and so on for the last several months, and hers are definitely among my favorite. They don't throw me around too much, they match up information provided with information required well, they have a full, rich flavor that is very accessible, there is...

some of the stories appear multiple times but her wording is very poetic(FROM JACKET)This landmark gathering of Zora Neale Hurston's short fiction—most of which appeared only in literary magazines during her lifetime—reveals the evolution of one of the most important African American writers. Spanning her career from 1921 to 1955, these stories attest to Hurston's tremendous range and establish themes that recur in her longer fiction. With rich language and imagery, the stories in this collectio...

This collection of short stories feels like a set of elements that can each exist on their own but can also coalesce into a single impression that saturates. She is a great writer and a great ethnographer--and the combination of the two is an unstoppable force. Her equal devotion to both Anthropology and Literature (especially her beautiful weaving of the two) reflect something that I can only aspire to achieve and something of which I believe the world needs more. For the full review and analys...

I was really compelled by this collection of all of her short fiction, even the ones she ordered burned after her death. There's neat revisions that were published two different ways and you can see a writer who uses the fable and folk tale in her early works (they rearranged chronologically) blossom into such a confident writer who blends folk tale with her own unique way of viewing race, the role of women, and myth. Highlights were "Spunk", "Hurricane" and "High John De Conquer". I had a forma...

I did my big reserach project in high school on Zora Neale Hurston's short stories. As stated, I am keenly interested in different cultural "adaptations" or unusual integrations of spirituality, superstition, folklore, and Christian religion. Hurston's stories are especially interesting as she studied Voodoo and Hoodoo practices in African-American culture in the deep South. Her stories show how black Christians in the south often had mythical, magical, and sometimes frighteningly "blended" syst...

Enjoyed the language throughout the stories I completed. There were similar or recurring character tropes in the works, the most common being the young, intelligent, ambitious person held back tragically in life because of race or class. Hurston was writing the history that was not making it into textbooks; her writing is important in understanding the plight of impoverished blacks in the pre-civil rights era south. My favorite story was with the brook and stream watching lovers, incredible use

Only the last two stories in this collection completely fell flat for me, which is a shame, because they look like manuscripts never meant to see the light of day. The rest are a pleasure because they capture Zora Neale Hurston’s ear for voice that breathes life into the most flawed, complex, and human characters pulling the reader along for the ride through folktales, alternate tellings of the lives of biblical patriarchs, and even stubbornly optimistic wish-fulfillment fantasies. They all work...

Maybe I'm too easy on my grading. This book makes me wish there were six stars to award. Queen of the Harlem Renaissance. Her backgraound in anthropology lends a folk-loric flavor to her writing. Her characters are real and larger-than-life at the same time. Hurston was a master of dialect and a master of language usage. A joy to read!

Hurston is an absolute master of the short story. The writing is fun and rich, but serious at the same time. Hurston seems to thrive on bringing out the humanity of her characters in the face of precisely those things that attempt to squash that humanity. This collection is just simply wonderful. I could read it over and over.

Great collection of short stories; common themes: love, good conquering evil, hoodoo, everyday experience, redemption/forgiveness "Ah'm satisfied wid you jes lak you is, baby. God took pattern after a pine tree and built you noble." p. 90Interesting passage p. 102 in story "Mother Catherine" Edition: intro by Henry Louis Gates Jr & Sieglinde Lemke; Harper Perennial 1996