Jonah's Gourd Vine

by Zora Neale Hurston

The first novel by the noted black novelist, folklorist, and anthropologist. Originally published in 1934, it was praised by Carl Sandburg as "a bold and beautiful book, many a page priceless and unforgettable."

Genres: Fiction, Classics, African American, Historical Fiction, African American Literature, Novels, Literature

229 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1934

About the author

Novels, including Their Eyes Were Watching God (1937), and nonfiction writings of American folklorist Zora Neale Hurston give detailed accounts of African American life in the South.

In 1925, Hurston, one of the leaders of the literary renaissance, happening in Harlem, produced the short-lived literary magazine Fire!! alongside Langston Hughes and Wallace Thurman shortly before she entered Barnard College. This literary movement developed into the Harlem renaissance.

Hurston applied her Barnard ethnographic training to document African American folklore in her critically acclaimed book Mules and Men alongside fiction Their Eyes Were Watching God . She also assembled a folk-based performance dance group that recreated her Southern tableau with one performance on Broadway.

People awarded a Guggenheim fellowship to Hurston to travel to Haiti and conduct research on conjure in 1937. Her significant work ably broke into the secret societies and exposed their use of drugs to create the Vodun trance, also a subject of study for fellow dancer-anthropologist Katherine Dunham, then at the University of Chicago.

In 1954, the Pittsburgh Courier assigned Hurston, unable to sell her fiction, to cover the small-town murder trial of Ruby McCollum, the prosperous black wife of the local lottery racketeer, who had killed a racist white doctor. Hurston also contributed to Woman in the Suwanee County Jail , a book by journalist and civil rights advocate William Bradford Huie.

Reviews

[Raymond · Rating 4 out of 5]

"His courage was broken. He lay there in bed and looked back over days that had had their trial and failure. They had all been glorious tomorrows once gilded with promise, but when they had arrived, they turned out to be just days with no more fulfillment- no more glad realities than those that had preceded- more betrayal, so why look forward? Why get up?" -Jonah's Gourd Vine

Jonah's Gourd Vine is Zora Neale Hurston's first novel which she wrote in 4 months and published in 1934. It tells the story of John Buddy Pearson and his wife Lucy. John Buddy becomes a preacher when he gets older and has many women in his life (at least five that I can remember). The book reads like a Greek tragedy and I think it would be interesting to see a play adaptation of this work. The title "Jonah's Gourd Vine" is referenced in the book a couple of times but its metaphorical connection is not clear unless you are familiar with Jonah 4: 6-10 in the Old Testament. Lastly, if your edition of the book has Rita Dove's Forward, I suggest you read it after you finish the novel so that the Forward does not spoil the story for you.

[booklady · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is Hurston’s first novel and it is amazing. A young man, John Buddy Pearson, a ‘yallar’ man as he is often called because of his white parentage, is big, strong, handsome, and charismatic, gifts which are an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time.

This story traces John's life from his teenage years on. It begins in the Reconstruction era when things have changed, and they haven’t at the the same time. Then there are some things about the human heart which never change and are colorblind. John is his mother's favorite, but rejected by her husband, the man who raised him, as a bastard. It is only the first of many situations where John is loved and hated simultaneously, sometimes for his own doings, sometimes for circumstances beyond his control. It continues to follow John through his marriage to the unforgettable Lucy of the irresistible eyes which made me think of St. Lucy, who was also known for her eyes.

I believe the title refers to the seeming arbitrariness of things, such as the vine which grew up to shelter Jonah, which he came to love, and then lost when it was cut down:

'But God said to Jonah, “Do you have a right to be angry over the gourd plant?” Jonah answered, “I have a right to be angry—angry enough to die.” Then the LORD said, “You are concerned over the gourd plant which cost you no effort and which you did not grow; it came up in one night and in one night it perished. And should I not be concerned over the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who cannot know their right hand from their left, not to mention all the animals?”

The dialect takes some getting used to, but there is this incredible Glossary at the end which translates some of the best colloquialisms. I was reading them to my daughter last night on the phone. Some you might guess at, but others, she agreed with me, you would never know without this aide. This would be one book to hear in audio if you get the chance. A real treat of a book.

[Cindy Marsch · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an astonishing book, full of richness and sorrow and grace, as life is. I need to read more Hurston, particularly her autobiography--I appreciated Henry Louis Gates's Afterword here. I grew up in Florida and rode the train through Sanford--the setting of much of this book--a number of times a few decades after this was written, and I recognized from my memory glimpses of how the world there used to be. Hurston has a distinctive narrative style that passes years sometimes with just the change of a paragraph--and I haven't decided whether that's a flaw or a feature, but in the end I think the book must just be what it is, and we are privileged to experience it.

[Kathleen · Rating 4 out of 5]

“So Jonah went out of the city, and sat on the east side of the city, and there made him a booth, and sat under it in the shadow, till he might see what would become of the city. And the Lord God prepared a gourd, and made it to come up over Jonah, that it might be a shadow over his head, to deliver him from his grief. So Jonah was exceeding glad of the gourd. But God prepared a worm when the morning rose the next day, and it smote the gourd that it withered.” Jonah 4:5-7

It’s late in the 19th century in the southern US, not long after Reconstruction, and John Buddy is an energetic boy with an uncertain heritage. He flees country life with his struggling family and heads over the hill to the plantation of Alf Pearson, who had owned John’s mother as a slave. He takes the name John Pearson, and his situation improves, but it won’t be the last time John runs away.

Throughout the story, John struggles--with criticism from just about everyone, with his wife’s interminable wisdom and strength, with his passion for other women, and with his inability to face difficult emotions.

God gives him a gourd vine and then he goes and let’s a worm eat it.

The characters of John and his wife Lucy are supposedly based on Hurston’s parents, and they read as beautiful but realistic tributes.

It’s impossible for me to overstate how much I adore Hurston’s writing. Her characters feel so authentic and recognizable, and whether she is writing in their voices:

“Ahm goin’ tuh run you so hard ‘til they can’t tell yo’ run-down shoe from yo’ wore out sock.”
and
“Dey’s some strings on our harp fuh us tuh play on and sing all tuh ourselves.”

or her own narrative voice:

“John strode across infinity where God sat upon his throne and looked off towards immensity and burning worlds dropped from his teeth. The sky beneath John’s tread crackled and flashed eternal lightning and thunder rolled without ceasing in his wake.”
and
“By that time the sun was washing herself in the bloody sea and splashing her bedclothes in red and purple.”

the words burst with poetry and sensuality, and I just can’t get enough of them.

For anyone who loved Their Eyes Were Watching God as I did, this first novel of hers is almost as good, and highly recommended.

[chantel nouseforaname · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this book to review the similarities between it and Baldwin’s Go Tell It On the Mountain and they are definitely there.

Ms. Zora knows how to tell a story. The language wasn’t hard to get at all. It was actually intriguing because the type of man that John Pearson is — damn. Definitely the prototype for Chris Brown ain’t shit ninja brigade!!

His poor wife Lucy didn’t stand a chance, with how these men preyed and prowled upon and around these women! Fast forward to the 90s, and he’s how many a married woman ended up becoming the fastest growing demographic with incurable illnesses due to their fast-assed non-monogamous-but-want-you-to-be-monogamous-or-they-killed-you lifestyle. It’s bullshit. The fact that the story is based on Ms. Zora’s daddy!?!! Damn, you know coulda been based on many of other daddies if we’re being real. Great fathers, terrible husbands? I don’t know. I also don’t wanna know. Unless it’s Ms. Zora sharing with me.

This story had all the qualities that make a Zora Neale Hurston book legendary: history! soul! a conjure woman working a root! parables! men falling victim to their own damn selves. All facts. It was a highly enjoyable read, as all of her books are. So easy to get into. It never feels removed from her, from what we know about her, of her. That’s what I love about the sisters. I gotta fall back into all the sisters, all the time; they’re really the ones that keep your attention!

[Lezlie The Nerdy Narrative · Rating 4 out of 5]

Still quality work from Zora Neale Hurston, but not my personal favorite. These characters - I just wanted to whip both of them for being so dang blind and silly and repeating the SAME mistakes over and over! I tell you the truth, if ZNH wanted to show somebody reaping what they sowed, I reckon this was the book! lol

[MJ Nicholls · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurston’s premiere is a riveting portrait of a “yaller” black man (born to a white father), cast out by his stepfather to a new life across the creek, from years of poverty and wifely strife to legendary status as a preacher. A sharp, unjudging portrait, John Pearson’s character is one of self-indulgence, philandering, and family neglect, elevated by Hurston’s perfect dialogue that captures the patois, the slang, the timbre of her characters with precision and panache. Uneven in plotting—the novel accelerates from lengthy portions of John’s childhood into his ascension to preaching royalty with casual leaps of chronology, skittering over formative moments towards the tragedies and tumults.

[tortoise dreams · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first novel by the author of Their Eyes Were Watching God, the story of a young man growing up to adulthood, but never fully reconciling himself.

Book Review: Jonah's Gourd Vine is just as good as Their Eyes Were Watching God, but is a smaller more focused story. While reading this wonderful novel, I felt as if I was sitting on the front steps, listening to the wisest woman on the block weave her stories of people she'd known long ago, staying up till late at night because I never wanted the words to end. As with Zadie Smith's writing, the characters come alive and the reader becomes fully invested, as if the people we meet are relatives or next door neighbors. In this book from 1934, Hurston says more about feminism, race in America, women and men, class, and poverty than any book written this year. She writes without self-pity and without defeat. Black people in Jonah's Gourd Vine are not less, incomplete, victimized, or somehow deprived versions of whites. They are whole, strong, determined, living full lives and confronting the world as they find it. Hurston is fully aware and writes of their reality, but for her white people are just another fact of life, like the weather, nature, fortune and misfortune. She has no time for hating or railing against the inequality she recognizes. Her characters are strong, intelligent, self-contained, they persevere, determined to carve their lives out of the wilderness. They are just as happy and realized as others; perhaps more so. This is a beautifully written book, poetry oozing between the words, lucky I get to see that world through other people's eyes. I'd never have known this was a first novel, it was so complete and rewarding. Only occasionally did I have the feeling that Hurston's field studies were being quoted at too great a length, but at the same time I enjoyed the idea of getting to see the results of her sociological and anthropological research. But don't forget that this is literature, with a fascinating readable surface, but with many thoughts and messages underneath. Readers could endlessly discuss what forces drive Lucy and John (the names of Hurston's parents), the role of religion, the strength and sorority of the women, the reality of hoodoo in the book, relations between classes and races. Jonah's Gourd Vine is as deep as the reader is willing to go (the Foreword by Rita Dove and Afterword by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. are both well worth reading after you've read the novel -- you'll find they encapsulate many of your own ideas). The book was also a call to action for me: I want to (1) learn more about Zora Neale Hurston's biography (she was forgotten for decades until Alice Walker published an article about her in 1975); (2) read her other two novels; (3) find more of her short stories (I read "Sweat," it was brilliant). This little review only scratches the surface. For me Hurston is now a must read. [4★]

[Darryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurston's first novel, published in 1934, is a fictionalized account of the lives of her parents set in the post-Reconstruction South to the years that followed the First World War. The title refers to the Biblical prophet, who cared more about the death of the gourd vine that sheltered him from the sun than the people of the nearby town of Nineveh, who were at risk of annihilation at the hand of God.

John Crittenden is born out of wedlock in post-Reconstruction Alabama to Amy, who later marries Ned, a sharecropper and embittered former slave who constantly butts heads with the strapping "high yaller" boy who isn't his own. Weary of the abuse and threats of his stepfather, John travels to a nearby farm to work, and meets Lucy, a younger girl who he falls in love with and ultimately marries. However, John is a strong and handsome man who is desired by many women, and he takes full advantage of this, to the detriment of his wives and young children. The aftermath of one affair nearly lands him on a chain gang, and he escapes to Florida, where he eventually moves to Eatonville, one of the first all-black towns in the Deep South. After working as a carpenter and sending for his family he eventually becomes a gifted preacher, who is in high demand in neighboring towns. However, he has not lost his taste for the flesh despite his love of the Spirit, and the problems that caused him to flee Alabama come to haunt him and his family in Florida.

I enjoyed this debut effort by Hurston, with its rich characters and compelling story, and it was nearly as good as her second and more famous novel, Their Eyes Were Watching God.

[Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Zora Neale Hurston is like settling back into a comfortable armchair and listening to stories told by a favorite relative who happens to be a keen observer, an insightful student of human nature in all its frailties and aspirations, and an excellent mimic. I felt totally immersed in this book, as in "Their Eyes Were Watching God" and Hurston's stories, though I didn't find it as finished as the other works. The element of folklore in John's story added an almost Biblical resonance to what's essentially a simple tale of a gifted and flawed man.

[James F · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hurston's first novel, this is a moving narrative of the rise, fall, and ultimate redemption of a basically good but weak man. The husband, John Pearson, is a Baptist preacher like Hurston's own father, the first wife is named Lucy Potts, the name of Hurston's mother, and the second wife is trashy (Hurston left home at fourteen after a fight with her stepmother), so this may in part be based on her own family; I will need to read her biography (on my possible-read list for next month) to be sure. There is some "conjure" material that is obviously based on her ethnographic research.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just wonderful book. Zora Neale Hurston was a masterful storyteller. Her work shines.

[Adrian · Rating 5 out of 5]

What makes the novel so striking—especially as a debut—is its refusal to flatten its characters into moral types. John is deeply flawed, yet never wholly condemned. His wife, Lucy, is long-suffering but never merely saintly. Even secondary characters pulse with life, their conflicts and desires rendered with dignity. The narrative is nonjudgmental but unflinching, showing how systemic injustice, generational trauma, and personal weakness intertwine.

Chapter 16 and the final chapter are so riveting, emotional and heartbreaking. Some of the best piece of work I’ve ever read.

Jonah’s Gourd Vine is not just a precursor to Hurston’s more widely celebrated fiction—it is a powerful and necessary work in its own right. It offers a deeply human portrait of a man trying to outrun both his past and his own shadow, set against a community whose resilience and rituals resist erasure.

[Yve · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jonah’s Gourd Vine is semi-autobiographical in an odd way: the author is a minor character, and the main character is her father, starting in his childhood and ending in his death. The blurb says it’s about “the rise and fall of a powerful preacher torn between spirit and flesh in an all-black town in Florida,” which is sort of true, but more than half the book is about John growing up/into himself before he even gets to Florida and becomes a preacher.

The title is a reference to Jonah 4:6-10. The “gourd vine” shelters Jonah for a time until God takes it away to expose him to the harshness of the world. There are many things that protect John in a similar way: his physical strength that lets him get work easily, good looks that endear people to him, his status as a preacher that makes people look the other way on his sins, his astute and loving first wife Lucy Ann Potts (Zora Neale Hurston’s mother) that works to help him even when he is unfaithful. That struggle “between spirit and flesh” comes when these things are torn away. And it’s not a struggle of choosing whether or not to be a preacher or anything like that, instead “spirit” is “love”, and “flesh” is “adultery.”

Zora Neale Hurston is the best descriptive author I know. In her writing you can see, hear, smell, taste everything. She uses a lot of poetic language, streams of impressions, and a loose flowing structure, but she also has a very light touch. She doesn’t hammer in recurring metaphors and images, she just lets them float.

It’s been a few years since I read Their Eyes Were Watching God, but I think Hurston’s knowledge of folklore is even more apparent in this novel. She weaves in Christian and Pagan practices with folktales and myths, so it feels like an homage to the world she grew up in.

It’s an oddly structured book, but a beautiful one.

[Makeda / ColourLit · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s taken me pretty much a whole month to complete this book...suffice to say it was a struggle. I wanted to love JGV but it required a lot of hard work; something I usually enjoy, especially if as a result, I’m rewarded with amazing narrative or a lesson. I finished JGV with a sigh of relief; its a book I’m highly unlikely to read again.

JGV focuses on John Buddy Pearson, his wife Lucy and John’s many women on the side. We follow John on his pursuit of work in the reconstruction era; over time he becomes a preacher and a mayor of a black town in Florida.

The book covers a lot of ground - colourism (and privilege - John is described as ‘yallar’), voodoo rituals, gender roles; it’s strengths lie in the wide ranging examination of black community/experiences following the abolition of slavery. That examination also leads to some of the book’s weaknesses, in particular the fact it reads more like an anthropological study rather than a novel - characters are introduced, say their part and are either bumped off or never make a reappearance. I enjoyed some of the observations ZNH made but didn’t like the narrative flow, it felt choppy in parts and wasn’t cohesive.

Another element I found challenging was the dialect - if you struggled with ‘Barracoon’ or
‘Their Eyes Were Watching God’ you’ll need to really take your time with JGV and possibly read it out loud. I re-read passages so often that I lost interest in the plot.

The book hasn’t aged well; there are a few elements that will put people off (e.g. John’s pursuit of 11 year old Lucy) - in spite of my complaints I enjoyed JGV but wasn’t blown away.

(2.5 stars rounded up to 3)

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

When I looked up the reference to Jonah’s Gourd Vine, I realized I had heard the story multiple times in church, at least once when my father was giving the sermon. Jonah’s Gourd Vine is the tree that God sent Jonah to shelter him from the elements, and then brutally killed off to demonstrate to Jonah that he had better do God’s bidding or else.

This story focuses on the gentle protection of a special woman and the man who does not realize until it is too late just how much benefit he received under her care.

Much of Hurston’s dialogue is laugh-out-loud brilliant—jumps right off the page. I ended up reading it aloud to my family, much to their chagrin.

Warning: Hurston writes her dialogue just as it is supposed to sound, so spelling is twisted and initially hard to read, but you do get the hang of it quickly.

[Kelsey Ellis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Jonah's Gourd Vine-

Zora never runs low on talent. I would easily give her 5 stars alone for the writing. If you have read this, you might know why I rated it as low as I did. I haaattteeeeeddddddd our main man and felt he is so unredemptive that I will likely not pick this one up again. The story however is full of biblical allegory- with John being our main anti-hero with the largest ego and victim complex ever.

This is based on the lived experienes of her parents- so it was rather intruging!

I really loved my fable group discussion of this book and I am grateful to the insights of others that kept this one going for me.

Excited to keep reading more Zora!

[Baz · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this sweeping novel of the fortunes and misfortunes of John Buddy. It’s the kind of story that encompasses a lot, and could be padded out into a 500+ page novel, but with no qualms Hurston leaps months and years from one paragraph to the next in this 215 pager that takes John from adolescence into old age. The style, the language, is versatile. Hurston can be direct and economical, and she can write a show-stopping lyrical sentence. In her time Hurston was at odds with many of her contemporaries for wanting to focus on the ‘personal dramas, loves, sorrows and joys’ of poorer black people, as Jesmyn Ward puts it in the introduction. She goes on to quote Hurston as having said, when writing this novel: ‘What I wanted to tell was a story about a man, and from what I had read and heard, Negroes were supposed to write about the Race Problem. I was and am thoroughly sick of the subject. My interest lies in what makes a man or a woman do such-and-so regardless of his color.’ And I admit, this is what drew me to the novel. I want to read nonAnglo stories, and in the realm of fiction, on the content/subject/story-level I’m most interested in character studies, the interior lives and relationships of complex personalities. This book gave me that. Hurston did what she intended.

[Jean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderfull story. The story of the life of John and Lucy Pearson and their community in the 1930 south.
I fell in love with Lucy the moment I met her. Although she is
too laid-back in accepting the action of her gad-about husband,
she is smart deep thinking woman who lovesher husband more than she does
herself.
ohn says that he loves Lucy but he runs from life's adversities
leaving Lucy to cope alone.She copes throughout their life together rarely complaining. Lucy is the glue that holds this family togehter.
I disliked John from the moment that he met Lucy. He leans
on her and needs
her to survive emotionally but for the most part, he refuses
to admit this.
although there is something with his relationships with men that reveals some likeable traits despite his roving, philandering,
woman hungry ways. I even enjoyed deciphering the dialect.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did - perhaps this is a failing on my part but it felt too much like homework to me for me to really enjoy. It wasn't until Hattie got in there to fuck shit up that I really actively liked it - up until that point it was hard to get invested. Working through the dialect also made it a slower read than I'm used to.

[Lee Foust · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hurston is wonderful writer, particularly at the level of the sentence. She reminds me of an American Virginia Woolf, but maybe that's due at least in part to Woolf's assessment of the female writer's sentence in A Room of One's Own. At any rate, Hurston's sentences are exquisite and she makes her prose really sing with a musical rythm worthy of the very best writers. Utterly a joy to read.

While the characters and situations here are engrossing, and I loved the depiction of characters woven into the progress of African Americans from the first post-slavery generation up through and into the aftermath of WWI, the only flaw of the novel, to me, was its slightly jerky depiction of events. It's not a fatal flaw, yet time in a long narrative is a delicate thing and I was really with John and then John and Lucy and then, as soon as they began to have children, their family life just sort of vanished and the narrative returned to John and, well, as a work of art, it felt a bit lop sided after that point.

I daresay the theme here is strength versus weakness and how even the seemingly strongest human beings have weak spots. Thus the focus is on John, a character of wild strengths and a couple of fatal weaknesses. This explains a bit the narrative's focus on him and his triumphs and failings, yet I still felt there was so much more that should have been told that was simply passed over, it left me both pleased yet wistful for the scenes and characters not written.

(Yes, I get it that John and Lucy are at least partially based on the author's parents and that that's probably the reason she omitted herself and her siblings from the narrative, but both the years passed over, and the characters omitted, left a kind of gaping hole in the story as told. This did make me want to read Hurston's autobiography, however, and that's not a form that usually interests me much.)

[Dom · Rating 2 out of 5]

My bad mood continues to lash out at books I read.

I’m so sorry Ms. Hurston, I just could not get along with this one. The phonetics really did me in and I did not have the patience to parse them. Was Their Eyes Were Watching God like this?

A lot of the “plot” of this book occurs through conversations and it was difficult to read what was being said. I’ll probably return at a later date when I am not in such a foul mood.

Also I hate John hes a SLUT and I don’t care that he died! Good riddance and mercy to the women.

Oh well!

[Drudru · Rating 4 out of 5]

I loved this book I mean anything by the infamous Zora Meals Hurston is gonna be good. She artisfully creates a story that not only draws a readers attention but keeps it there. I enjoyed the story of John and Lucy, although my heart broke for Lucy I think she deserved a way better end then what she got. I guess that's the unfortunate story of black women in that time period. Besides that the story warmed my heart and I couldn't stop reading, Ms. Hurston is and always will be a master storyteller.

[Harajyuku · Rating 3 out of 5]

An okay novel but a great attempt by Hurston to freeze and depict some of the attitudes, acts, language, and feelings of early 20th century Southern black Americans. You can perceive her personal interest in feminism, anthropology, and voodoo very clearly. There were some stunning turns of phrase, like: "The old black woman of the sky chased the red-eyed sun across the sky every evening and smothered him in her cloak at last. This had happened many times."

[Saul Rodriguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Incredible debut novel. Right out the gate Hurston was able to bring so much flesh and blood to her characters. As an omniscient narrator the observations and allusions she dispenses are perfectly balanced and non-judgmental even as the characters commit a lot of cruelty. She’s able to present them with all their emotions and flaws and let them speak for themselves which only creates a stronger emotional connection to them. Can’t wait to read more of her.

[Erin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is always so much to be discovered when reading her books...so much to be read in between the lines. So much to be learned about black cluture and community. Zora alway gets my wheels turning.

[Madeleine Smith]

The writing is as beautiful as our MC is awful. Hurston tells a fictionalized (kinda) version of her parents’ lives, riffing names, major plot points, and more from the villains (her father) and heroes (her mother) themselves.

There’s so much wisdom and profound observation crammed into the prose of this relatively short novel. The parallels, foreshadowing, and symbolism are wonderfully intentional. It was interesting to see generations play out the same challenges. For example, Lucy/John mimicked a Ned/Amy convo about opportunities for kids and wanting more for them than their parents had. The women consistently showed more hope for the future while still being fully grounded in the reality of the present. The men are both pessimists AND opportunists, taking advantage of their wives' hard work and clear judgment.

Speaking of which, Hurston writes incredible women. Even if you hate the MC, you stay because these women (even the “bad” ones) are captivating to read.

A few quotes/phrases I couldn’t get over:
- “He sang and sinned, but men saw his cloak and felt it.”
- “His weight seemed nothing in many hands.”
- “Ignorance is the hawse dat wisdom rides.”
- “Big talk ain’t changin’ whut you doin’. You can’t clean yo’self lak uh cat.”
- “Don’t love nobody better’n you do yo’self. Do, you’ll be dying befo’ yo’ time is out. And Isis, uh person kin be killed ‘thout being struck down.”
- “The shiny coffin that held the beginning and the end of so much.”
- "World gone money mad. The pinch of war gone, people must spend. Buy and forget. Spend and solace. Silks for sorrows. Jewels to bring back joy."
- “Besides, the younger generation winked at what their elders cried over.”
- "Hattie knew, as do other mortals, that half the joy of quitting any place is the loneliness we leave behind."
- "He was going about learning old truths for himself as all men must, and the knowledge he got burnt his insides like acid."

[Kim Williams · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took a few pages to get into step with the dialect, but after that this was a great read. I had to look up the Biblical reference of the title. In the story, God provides a vine to shelter Jonah from the elements only to take it away the next morning. My takeaway is simply that the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. There is deeper meaning in Jonah's grieving for the loss of the vine, while being angry at God for not destroying Nineveh. How can he grieve the loss of so fleeting a thing as a vine while wishing a city of thousands destroyed?
The book is about the life of a man who from humble beginnings rises to become a great preacher. But his extracurricular activities with women threaten the life he has built. Can he find redemption before he loses it all or will his path only lead to tragedy?
If you've never read Hurston, I'd say the beginning is a great place to start. This is her first book and it's easy to see why she is such a beloved author.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

No surprise that Hurston's first novel is great, of course. Apparently the book is based on the life of her father, so the protagonist is not entirely admirable, shall we say - as is so often the case with human beings in real life. Which is not to suggest he's a villain, just to be clear, I'm only saying that I found him tiresome. But what made the book worth reading for me is the author's gift for language. The way her characters speak is just wonderful (including the sometimes less-than-lovable protagonist), even if I did have to look at the glossary in the back of this edition to understand some of what they said. I believe Hurston was one of the greatest writers of the 20th century, and it was a century with a lot of great writers in it, so that's no small praise. Both her fiction and her nonfiction are enjoyable, so if you have not had the pleasure yet, I encourage you to give her a try.

[Lauryn · Rating 4 out of 5]

“With her bangs above her shining eyes and the door-knob knot of her hair at the back, Lucy sat on that front seat in church and felt a look strike her in the back and slide off helplessly. Her husband’s glance fell on her like dew. Her look and nobody else’s was in his grey eyes, and the coldness melted from the pit of her stomach…(p.115)”

This book was wonderful. The local color, sensual language, and authenticity in Hurston’s writing is only part of what makes her stand out in the canon. You can feel what she has written! Her first novel, Jonah’s Gourd Vine did not disappoint, and the above quote showcases the beauty of how she weaves the title into her semi-autobiographical work. I gave it 4 ⭐️’s as the local color/dialect was somewhat overwhelming for me at times, however, I would love to hear this book read aloud! Overall, simply marvelous and I’m sad this one had to end.