The Frame

by Zora Neale Hurston

I enjoyed this much-maligned last novel by Hurston best of all. In a turn that many critics have denounced, she sets this one among white people and focuses much more on the marriage relationship than on racism, or self-actualization, or any of the things that preoccupied her in her other novels. However, in that close focus on that one marriage and the people who have to overcome inferiority complexes, patriarchal structures, and debilitating lack of communication, she really captivated me. If you haven’t read Hurston and want to, I actually recommend starting with this one instead of Their Eyes. It’ll get you into her style of looking at things without the difficult of the dialect, for one thing. But then, I’m also biased, because I really loved it.
Well Above Average