Zora Neale Hurston published Their Eyes Were Watching God in 1937. By 1960 she was working as a maid in Florida. The story of how the book came back — and Hurston with it — is itself one of the great literary recoveries of the twentieth century.
"Ships at a distance have every man's wish on board. For some they come in with the tide. For others they sail forever on the horizon, never out of sight, never landing until the Watcher turns his eyes away in resignation..."
The novel opens with a metaphor about gender, time, and desire — then turns to its actual heroine, Janie Crawford, walking home after burying her third husband. The structure is a framed retrospective: Janie tells her life to her friend Pheoby in a single evening, and the reader listens in.