Wow, this is just spectacular. So sad that it was out of print for so long. I listened on audio, and the performance by Ruby Dee blew me away.

Set in Jim Crow era Florida, it tells the dramatic life of Janie, a beautiful black woman, as she goes through husbands and hardships.

I have tried and failed at reading several Toni Morrison stories, and I had the same expectation for this book. It too is lyrical and poetic, and it also has a lot of the “hard facts of life,” but I was just so enthralled with the story and the characters that I read it in two days. I loved Janie.