Super Short Summary

In Zora Neale Hurston's debut novel, Jonah's Gourd Vine, John Buddy Pearson, a mulatto man raised in sharecropping poverty in Alabama, flees his abusive step-father, finds success but is plagued by philandering, marries Lucy, moves to Eatonville, Florida, becomes a respected preacher and mayor, but ultimately falls from grace due to his continued infidelity. The book contains instances of domestic abuse, racial prejudice, and the protagonist's various infidelities.