The Bluest Eye (Oprah's Book Club) (Paperback)

by Toni Morrison (Author) "Nuns go by as quiet as lust, and drunken men and sober eyes sing in the lobby of the Greek hotel..." (more)
Key Phrases: bluer eyes, The Bluest Eye, Aunt Jimmy, Miss Marie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Oprah Book Club® Selection, April 2000: Originally published in 1970, The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel. In an afterword written more than two decades later, the author expressed her dissatisfaction with the book's language and structure: "It required a sophistication unavailable to me." Perhaps we can chalk up this verdict to modesty, or to the Nobel laureate's impossibly high standards of quality control. In any case, her debut is nothing if not sophisticated, in terms of both narrative ingenuity and rhetorical sweep. It also shows the young author drawing a bead on the subjects that would dominate much of her career: racial hatred, historical memory, and the dazzling or degrading power of language itself.

Set in Lorain, Ohio, in 1941, The Bluest Eye is something of an ensemble piece. The point of view is passed like a baton from one character to the next, with Morrison's own voice functioning as a kind of gold standard throughout. The focus, though, is on an 11-year-old black girl named Pecola Breedlove, whose entire family has been given a cosmetic cross to bear:

You looked at them and wondered why they were so ugly; you looked closely and could not find the source. Then you realized that it came from conviction, their conviction. It was as though some mysterious all-knowing master had given each one a cloak of ugliness to wear, and they had each accepted it without question.... And they took the ugliness in their hands, threw it as a mantle over them, and went about the world with it.

There are far uglier things in the world than, well, ugliness, and poor Pecola is subjected to most of them. She's spat upon, ridiculed, and ultimately raped and impregnated by her own father. No wonder she yearns to be the very opposite of what she is--yearns, in other words, to be a white child, possessed of the blondest hair and the bluest eye.

This vein of self-hatred is exactly what keeps Morrison's novel from devolving into a cut-and-dried scenario of victimization. She may in fact pin too much of the blame on the beauty myth: "Along with the idea of romantic love, she was introduced to another--physical beauty. Probably the most destructive ideas in the history of human thought. Both originated in envy, thrived in insecurity, and ended in disillusion." Yet the destructive power of these ideas is essentially colorblind, which gives The Bluest Eye the sort of universal reach that Morrison's imitators can only dream of. And that, combined with the novel's modulated pathos and musical, fine-grained language, makes for not merely a sophisticated debut but a permanent one. --James Marcus --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Library Journal
No doubt spurred on by Morrison's winning of the 1993 Nobel prize for literature, Plume is releasing trade paperback editions of her novels, beginning with this title (LJ 11/1/70). These editions also include a new afterword by the author.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Plume (April 26, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0452282195
• ISBN-13: 978-0452282193
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (504 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #48,008 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 33 in The Oprah's Book Club Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

154 of 158 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful story, May 8, 2000

By	Roz Levine (Virginia) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

This review is from: The Bluest Eye (Hardcover)

The Bluest Eye, the story of a young girl's tortured life, is not a story you can "like". It reads like your worst nightmares, very disturbing and very graphic. It takes a strong stomach to get through this novel. But, this is just what makes the book a masterpiece, that Ms Morrison can draw such powerful feelings from readers. Toni Morrison has grown as a writer. But this book, her first, takes you to a world most didn't know existed and evokes almost unbearably strong emotions. A must read for lovers of great literature. This is not a book you read for pleasure. It's a book you read for the power of the written word.

86 of 89 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Surprisingly good..., September 28, 2001

By	Dianna Johnston "Compulsive Reader" (Joplin, MO) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I will admit to some apprehension prior to picking up this book. I had heard that Toni Morrison, although a brilliant author, is a little hard to understand. And there's nothing I hate more than wading through a book full of abstract poetic descriptions and thick symbolism that goes right over my head. Despite all this, I pulled up my bootstraps and dived right in. What was to follow was quite a surprise.

The Bluest Eye tell the story of the Breedloves, a poor black family living in Lorain, Ohio in the early 1940s. Each chapter tells something different -- the journey of the dad, Cholly, from curious young boy to a drunk and unloving father; the history of the mother, Pauline, and her dreams of movie stars and romance; and the childhood of the children, Sammy and Pecola, and how they deal with life as they've been given. Full of hardships and unfairness, the Breedloves have been through tough times most of their lives. And young Pecola's wishes of blue eyes and blonde hair in order to be loved and respected by others is a testament to the unjust world they lived in.

My fear is that this review won't do the book justice. There is so much written here that left me with feelings of sadness and horror, but also of hope -- hope that our world now has moved on from the racism of the past and will eventually surpass it. The Bluest Eye is highly moving and sensitive, and written in an addictive easy and lyrical style. I may have missed an important part of the book, any underlying symbolism or meaning that Toni Morrison was trying to convey -- I don't know. All I do know is The Bluest Eye is a darn good story, and I'm extremely glad I read it.

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haunting, April 27, 2000

By	Anon - See all my reviews

I was assigned this book nine years ago during a women's literature class. The story moved me in ways that I can't explain. I grew up in a solidly middle class (primarily white) community, and Toni Morrison introduced me to a little girl who was simply foreign. I was haunted by The Bluest Eye. Bits and pieces of the story would come to mind at odd times over the next year or so, until finally I decided to visit the small town in Ohio where The Bluest Eye is based. So, about 7 years ago, I made that trip. Now each time that I re-read the book (probably twenty times over the past nine years) I have a very solid picture in my mind of where this story unfolds. I remember when Oprah first chose a Toni Morrison book for her club -- I believe it was Song of Solomon. I said at that time (and actually noted it in my Amazon.com review) that she should introduce America to the Bluest Eye. Thank you, Oprah.