Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
In the competent latest entry in Reaktion's Critical Lives series, Hopson, an English professor at Western Kentucky University, explores the groundbreaking career of novelist and anthropologist Hurston (1891--1960), whose early life was marked by hardship. She was 13 when her mother died, after which her father sent her away to a Florida Bible school and then stopped paying tuition, forcing Hurston to work multiple jobs to cover room and board. A talented student, Hurston became the first Black woman to attend Barnard College, graduating after three years with a BA in anthropology and joining the thriving Harlem literary scene. Offering close readings of Hurston's major works, Hopson explores themes of love and independence in Their Eyes Were Watching God and argues that Moses, Man of the Mountain is an allegory for Hurston's life, with her literary talents recast as the biblical prophet's divine gifts. Delving into Hurston's anthropological work, Hopson notes that in the 1930s she collected folklore in Haiti and studied a community "made up of descendants of African people who had escaped their enslavers" in Jamaica. Hopson sets forth a concise overview of her subject's life, but the just-the-facts approach will leave readers yearning for panache and perspective. This gets the job done, even as it lacks in style. Photos. (July)
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Review by Library Journal Review
In the latest in the University of Chicago "Critical Lives" series, poet and literary scholar Hopson (Fragile) concisely tells the story of Zora Neale Hurston (1891--1960), from her childhood in Florida to her time as the first Black student at Barnard College and her work as an anthropologist and author. Part biography, part literary criticism, the work is an excellent introduction to Hurston and her writings. The chapters highlighting her works create an accessible interpretation of her ideas and feature other literary critics expertly. Hopson writes about the difficult times that Hurston lived through and how those experiences must have affected her, along with how they are reflected in her writings. She makes the distinction that Hurston was "living womanism long before Alice Walker coined the term." The epilogue defends Hurston from criticisms levelled against her throughout her career, such as catering to wealthy white patrons. Hopson argues that her works are as relevant as ever: "Hurston understood most readily that U.S. society has never been amenable to Black life. Black women's lives, even less so." VERDICT An excellent mix of biography and literary criticism, this book is recommended for both academic and public libraries.--Julie Feighery
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
A concise exploration of the life and work of the acclaimed writer, anthropologist, and folklorist. In the latest in the Critical Lives series, Hopson, a professor of English and African American studies, argues that Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960) used her "firm foundation of self-knowledge and self-worth" to "build herself up from the frontier that was Eatonville, Florida, where she grew up, and from out of the squalor in which she lived after her mother died in 1904." The author's upbringing in all Black Eatonville fostered the bright girl's curiosity and daydreaming. When she was 13, her father sent her to a Christian school in Jacksonville, after which she continued her education at Howard. At 37, with financial help from friends, Hurston graduated from Barnard College, its first Black student. She was mentored in anthropology by Franz Boas, who sent her to Eatonville to research Black culture; then she moved to New York City and "quickly transitioned…to an award-winning Black woman intellectual" amid the Harlem Renaissance. Her 1926 play, Color Struck, a "pioneering literary work," won second place in drama from Opportunity: A Journal of Negro Life. In 1928, she "underwent a voodoo conversion" in New Orleans, later writing her "manifesto of selfhood and identity," "How It Feels To Be Colored Me." In 1931, Hurston wrote the posthumously published Barracoon, which deals with the slave trade, and two years later, her first novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine. In 1935, she published her important folklore collection, Mules and Men, with Boas' introduction, and her highly influential novel Their Eyes Were Watching God came out the next year. After moving to California, she wrote a memoir, Dust Tracks on a Road, which Hopson describes as "an invaluable work of self-fashioning and self-promotion." Though well researched, the narrative suffers from patches of dry, choppy prose. A serviceable introduction for general readers. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
