Banned Book Pick: Their Eyes Were Watching God

I love a good love story, especially a feminist love story.  Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston is a great love story.  Alice Walker said, "There is no book more important to me than this one."  The narrative moves swiftly, while at the same time compelling the reader to pause and ponder.  Ideas like:  "There are years that ask questions and years that answer."  Followed by questions: "Did marriage end the cosmic loneliness of the unmated?"

I don't understand why the book was challenged in Brentsville, VA in 1997.  That was the same year Beloved by Toni Morrison was challenged by a Madawaska School Committee member.  Both books were challenged on the basis of language and sexual explicitness.  The language in Their Eyes Were Watching God is powerful.  Hurston moves flawlessly between two voices, one traditionally literary and one idiomatic, making a powerful statement about what it means to be a black woman in a white, male-dominated culture, while telling a universal love story.