This book deals with some topics that are hard enough to speak about, much less read about. I found parts of this book rather hard to read (based on the topics) and some hard to understand (based on how she writes them). I think this book is important to American literature, although younger readers should use caution before deciding to read it. ( )

From HPL - The Bluest Eye (1970) is the first novel written by Toni Morrison. It is the story of eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning and the tragedy of its fulfillment. ( )

After I read a book by Toni Morrison I feel like I should not read anything else until I have read everything she has done. There is more to admire in each sentence of hers than in entire novels I have read. This was her first novel and I would love to quickly jump to A Mercy - her last novel -- to get an interesting perspective. The story is wonderfully written and certainly this author deserves all the accolades that have been bestowed. It is an important book and must of been even more so as it hit the shelves back in the 70's and soon became one of the most controversial of stories. My edition contained an afterward which also adds some interesting perspective to the story as Morrison humbly describes what she feels she was unable to do. What she was able to do was depict the lives of 3 teenage girls in Lorain Ohio just before the start of WWII. Basically the story illustrates the racial self loathing that was prevalent for the lives of these girls, (Claudia, Freida, and Pecola) -where Shirley Temple is idolized, white dolls are given as precious presents, and beauty is determined by the lightness of your skin and the blueness of your eyes. Claudia partially narrates the story of Pecola, a girl who suffers one of the worst lives depicted in literature. She is considered ugly, sexually abused by her father, beaten by her mother, and tricked by a pedophile into believing that she could have blue eyes. It is only through her madness, her escape from life, that she is able to have her wish. Morrison, in 3rd person narration, also detailed the facts behind Pecola’s tragic existence by providing the histories of a father who was abandoned at birth and a mother who jumped at the first man who showed an interest. A quote form the NY Times nicely summarizes:
"I have said "poetry." But "The Bluest Eye" is also history, sociology, folklore, nightmare and music. It is one thing to state that we have institutionalized waste, that children suffocate under mountains of merchandised lies. It is another thing to demonstrate that waste, to re-create those children, to live and die by it. Miss Morrison's angry sadness overwhelms. "
For those interested the Yale University has a lecture on this novel as part of their free on line literature course. ( )

The Bluest Eye is a story about three girls: Pecola, Frieda and Claudia. Or maybe it’s a story about just one girl: Pecola. It’s a story about how one girl’s life is completely trashed and ruined. About how her self-worth is dictated by people who have nothing to do with her. About how her sense of what beauty truly means is reduced to wanting blue eyes.

This book had my heart clutching, and my hands rolled into tight balls. There was a lot of emotion swirling around, painful emotions that wouldn’t go away even after I closed the book. There was anger and confusion folded in together. There were people I wanted to hate, but just couldn’t bring myself to hate them, and I don’t understand why.

Most of all, I think The Bluest Eye asked questions. It prompted me to ask questions. Why do we have a preconception of what beauty means? Why do we feel that we need power to survive? How do we lose our innocence as children? Why do we draw thick lines between us, always looking for differences, but never our similarities? Why the need to claim one as the superior?

I found it very emotionally gripping. ( )

This is award-winning writer Toni Morrison's first novel and my edition had an interesting afterward by her dated 30 years after she first wrote the book. It was a thought-provoking reflection on how she viewed what she tried to accomplish then and relative to now. The story is told, for the most part, from the point of view of a pre-teen girl and cleverly divided into seasons. I originally read the book when it was one of Oprah's selections about 8 or 9 years ago so I always find it interesting to re-read a book at a different stage in life. However, both times I felt anger that the adults allowed Pecola Breedlove to endure what she did in her life. She was made to feel 'ugly' inside and out and the only way that she thought that she could get her life back in order was the simple wish for the unnatural blue eyes. ( )