Zora Neale Hurston

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)