



The Bluest Eye (Unabridged)
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4.4 • 314 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.
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.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
Toni Morrison’s controversial first novel is a no-holds-barred account of the dark, rippling effects of systemic racism. In rural Ohio in 1941, a fragile African American girl named Pecola internalizes her world’s narrow notions of beauty and wishes for only one thing: a pair of blue eyes. Pecola—whose home life is treacherous and violent—navigates her troubled world alongside her friends Frieda and Claudia. Morrison paints a harrowing picture of growing up Black in Jim Crow–era America, but her rhythmic, poetic reading adds a sense of beauty and hope to even the darkest passages. Listening to The Bluest Eye is a truly special experience, adding depth to this iconic novel and letting us bask in the glorious talent of the late Nobel laureate.
Customer Reviews
Love/Hate this story
Toni Morrison has a beautiful reading voice and this story was great! I just hated the story. It was so sad and melancholy. I was hoping for a better ending for Picola! I wanted better for her. My heart hurt for her. Her parents were selfish and self absorbed. Ugh I’ll never read this again because it’s very heart wrenching.
A lyrical masterpiece!
While I found the lyrical quality of the hard copy easier to engage with, I deeply appreciated Toni Morrison's descriptive narrative. The poignant depiction of the story's sadness and its stark realism evoked a profound empathy for the unheard voices of young black girls.
Timeless, relevant, and moving …
I cannot write a review that would even begin to do justice to this amazing novel nor to its author who so beautifully opened my mind to a world I could not otherwise understand from the background and experiences of my own life. My kid recommended this to me as their favorite novel they studied in high school, and I’m so saddened to know it’s being banned by so many who eagerly close their minds and hearts to that which contradicts their own world views. Books like these that so eloquently paint pictures of scenes we have not seen ourselves and people we would never otherwise come to have known challenge readers to understand humanity in deeper and more meaningful ways. Toni Morrison’s narration of her work draws you in and holds you there, causing you to care about her characters and their ultimate fate. Easily one of my new favorite authors.