SPOILERS AHEAD- BEWARE
African American literature really does have gems of books. I liked this touching story of fair-skinned Janie Crawford through her three marriages. Majority of the book is written in phonetic spellings, which was surprisingly not difficult for me to read . Janie is brought up by her grandmother and at the young age of sixteen, she suffers disillusionment of her idea of marriage of love. Later on, she suffers the indignities and the stifling nature of being a trophy wife. She finally finds the love that she yearns for through Tea Cake. The 1928 Okeechobee hurricane ultimately has disastrous consequences for Janie ending with Tea Cake's death through Rabies and a subsequent murder trial for Janie.
This book was censured heavily when published, and I can see why. The book is definitely not flattering to the black community as it shows differences between the lighter-toned and the darker-toned people along with a lot of sexism.
While it was a great read, the book didn't really have me in its grips. I took an unusually long time (for me) to finish this book. I couldn't really feel sorry for Janie in her first marriage or even her second. I guess it's because I keep thinking how much worse-off she could have been. Loss of innocence and independence are hard... but they didn't strike a big chord in me. Maybe I'm not that big a feminist? :)
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