Tell My Horse : Voodoo and Life in Haiti and Jamaica | 
| Author: Zora Neale Hurston
Publisher: Harper Perennial
List Price: $13.95
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Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 138167
Media: Paperback
Pages: 336
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0060916494
Dewey Decimal Number: 299.67
EAN: 9780060916497
ASIN: 0060916494
Publication Date: February 28, 1990
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Condition: yellowish pages, clean text
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Product Description
As a first-hand account of the weird mysteries and horrors of voodoo, Tell My Horse is an invaluable resource and fascinating guide. Based on Zora Neale Hurston's personal experiences in Haiti and Jamaica, where she participated as an initiate rather than just an observer of voodoo practices during her visits in the 1930s, this travelogue into a dark world paints a vividly authentic picture of ceremonies and customs and superstitions of great cultural interest.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Zora's trip into voodoo May 16, 2000
Dr. Stephen Hicks (Manchester, UK)
35 out of 37 found this review helpful
In the late 1930s, Zora Neale Hurston toured Jamaica and Haiti on a Guggenheim Fellowship collecting folklore and voodoo materials for this book, published in 1938. The book is in three sections, covering her views of and experiences in Jamaica, people and politics of Haiti, and finally her initiation and participation in the world of Haitian voodoo. Zora maintains her usual stance of the involved, inquisitive participant, and her initiation into the ways of voodoo was, and is, both remarkable and engaging. From sexism in Jamaica to threats about her voodoo investigations, from commentary on her role as ethnographer to criticism of previous white studies of voodoo, the book is wild, and collects a huge range of important black cultural practices. Zora left the field hurriedly in 1938, desperately ill, convinced she might die, and sure that she had been 'hexed' for delving too deep into the world of 'bad' (petro) voodoo...have a read of one of the most important pieces of black folklore research of the 1930s. Parlay cheval ou! Ah bo bo!
It Will Change Your Reality October 7, 2000
Guy Mead (Isle of Palms, South Carolina USA)
11 out of 13 found this review helpful
If this book was fiction I would call it one of the most imaginative books I have ever read, but it's real. It is scary, unbelievably deep, and true. A wonderful anthropological gathering of stories, ceremonies , and everyday life. Let me wash my face with Jalapeno rum if I'm not telling the truth about this book being great. You can tell my horse.
 Interesting, but not a real ethnography October 4, 2001
Jen (San Francisco, CA)
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
Make no mistake, this is a travelogue, not an ethnography in the traditional sense. Hurston, who was a voodoo priestess of a high order herself, was too immersed in the culture to really view it objectively, which is necessary for any anthropologist. That said, it's still a very interesting read and certainly emphasizes the fact that voudon is a valid religion and not a set of superstitions. However, I'm puzzled as to why Ismael Reed (himself an accomplished writer) is listed as a credit. Did he write the introduction? Because he didn't write this book. Hurston wrote it. She traveled to Haiti by herself in the 30s to investigate this. It was not written by Reed.
Engaging reading, fantastic stories November 19, 2002
10 out of 10 found this review helpful
Reading this book is like travelling along with Ms. Neale Hurston as she explores life in Haiti. You will meet fanscinating and intriguing people. The practices and beliefs are explained in just enough detail to make you feel like you were there, but all the mystery is retained as even the author is unable to explain or understand the depth of experience and strength of beliefs held by the native Haitians. Finding non-fiction that reads like a novel is a rare and wonderful treasure.
 Really entertaining !! March 19, 2003
Lemich Drakkar (Lausanne, Suisse)
8 out of 11 found this review helpful
The writing of Zora Neale Hurston is fine. The content of the book is, in his second part, is a "first hand" experience of what voodoo was in 1930. This is therefore a classical and valuable source of knowledge. Interesting enough, Zora Neale Hurston took probably part at various voodoo initiations, and we would have been interested to know more about her experiences, feelings, philosophical and religious insights. Unfortunately for us, she respected the "secret de l'arcane" which characterizes most of the so called esoteric societies. There is also hope for Haiti in this book, but it demonstrates also the power of USA to bring some kind of mismatch in the political affairs and economic life of a poor and very small country. Abobo!
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