A Patch of Blue [Mass Market Paperback]

Elizabeth Kata (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 13, 1988

With over 1.5 million copies in print, here is a novel of great power and beauty in which a blind white girl and a black man beset by hardships find love together. "Its impact will leave you gasping."--Saturday Review Syndicate. Reissue.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Its impact will leave you gasping."-- --Saturday Review Syndicate. Reissue. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 144 pages
• Publisher: Warner Books (April 13, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446314854
• ISBN-13: 978-0446314855
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #542,052 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, but a little flat in the end., March 4, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Patch of Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

Elizabeth Kata's poignant novel, "A Patch of Blue," details the brief relationship of a young white woman from the South who falls in love with a black man in the early 1960s. Selina is a young woman of eighteen years, blinded accidentally by her mother when she was five. She is neglected, mistreated and abused by the miserable people she lives with, her prostitute mother and drunken grandfather. Somehow, Selina is not scarred by these wretches and grows up to be an attractive, sensitive, caring young woman. Her survival over these odds is almost beyond belief, because of the torment this girl endured quietly for eighteen years. At one point, Rose-ann, Selina's mother, returns, violent and wild, from her minimum-wage job of cleaning restrooms. In a frantic rage, she shatters all the kitchenware, which is left on the floor for Selina to fall on later. She then attacks her daughter. Wrenching her by her hair from under a dirty cot that serves as a bed, she brutally beats her until Selina is bruised, bleeding and vomiting. The plot begins to develop when Selina meets Gordon Ralphe, a stranger, in the park. He treats her with respect and is determined to get her away from the two despicable people she lives with. Their neglect has caused her to be illiterate and ignorant to the ways of the world for having been locked up in a one-room apartment for over thirteen years. Gordon sees that it is imperative for her, as a grown woman, to be educated and aware of the world and out of the harm's way at home. It is no wonder that Selina and Gordon fall in love. He is her only friend and the only person she has ever known to treat her kindly. She is sweet, beautiful, tender, affectionate and tolerant of him, qualities he values in a woman. There is one complication: Gordon is black. In the 1960s, a decade often characterized by racial and ethnic discrimination and hate in the South, this difference poses a serious problem. But what does Selina care? She's blind. Except for the fact that for the few colors she remembers from early childhood, she hates the color black, there should be no problem. She feels this way about the color black partly because she lives with her extremely prejudiced mother and grandfather. Mostly, though, this feeling comes from being trapped in black darkness forever because of blindness. Can their brief, but intense, love break such a strong social barrier? Or are they destined to be separated forever? I won't give away the ending, except to say that I was very disappointed. It was a great story, excellently written, but I found it lacking in the end. It ended flatly and without any clear resolution. The reader is left suspended, thirsting for more details and answers. You may feel as I do, annoyed with a weak finish, or you may be slightly surprised, as it takes an unexpected turn.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Patch of Blue, January 5, 2000

By 

A sophomore in Whitehall, Wisconsin - See all my reviews

This review is from: A Patch of Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

A Patch of Blue is an outstanding book! It is set in the 1960's when race and prejudice was a problem. A blind girl named Selina gains and loses many things throughout her life. She falls in love with a man without knowing his race. Being blind still makes it hard for her not to be prejudiced against others, as that's all she knows due to her childhood. Her love for Gordon teaches Selina not to be prejudiced, and she finally realizes people are people no matter what their race. Although the book does not have a typical ending, it has a profound effect. A Patch of Blue is a very enjoyable and memorable book. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys love stories, as well as learning about life.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The somewhat lacking story of an abused blind girl., March 1, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: A Patch of Blue (Mass Market Paperback)

This story focuses around a poor blind named Selina, born into a poor family which abuses and neglects her. She struggles with her disability but also struggles to get a foot-hold into a "normal" life. Not an uplifting story, this is book is brutally honest about the effects of an abusive family on a fragile spirit. Depressing, somewhat, and begins to ask some valid questions about the human condidtion. Unfortunately, it stops there. Interesting only up to a point, I found myself skimming pages, looking for a brake in the rambling storyline. This book would most likely be intriguing only to those unfamiliar or just begining to get into social comentary. Not for the advanced readers, or even mediocre readers. Most likely for the 6th to 7th grade area. I won't give anything away, accept to say it ends weakly. Nothing unexpected in this story. I saw the plot "twists" coming at me like a mac-truck on an otherwise lonely highway on a 3 mile long level plain in Idaho with beacon head-lights a five A.M. Not to say the book is bad, per se, probably better for someone younger than me, though. After reading more advance novels like "To Kill a Mocking Bird", "A Patch of Blue" reads kind of like "The Cat in the Hat". The only implications or metaphores in this book are so easily read that you'd have to lock the book in the bottom of a file cabinet to not see them (a plus for some readers), most of which center around colors, and a few around race. If you're looking for some lighter reading (light as in easy, not as in happy), read this, as long as you're not used to difficult novels. If, however, if you're looking for anything with a little more depth or challenge, I wouldn't suggest it.