I saw this tweet a couple of weeks ago: "Going through life white, male, middle-class and American is like playing a video game on easy mode." For those of us born into this: how many chances do we get to fuck things up and still come out just fine? An almost infinite amount, apparently.

Toni Morrison wants those of us born with that winning life-lotto combo ticket to experience the opposite of that life track in a world that encompasses, in her words, "the far more tragic and disabling consequences of accepting rejection as legitimate, as self-evident." Where life begins in pain, in rejection, in constant on-going humiliation and self-loathing. The ego doesn't ever have a chance. The Bluest Eye provides a window into this world - a viewpoint so that a Reader can see it for all of its ugliness and marvel at those, like Morrison, that overcome this environment and become a thing of beauty.

If you are white male upper-middle class American - a state senator from Alabama with power and a national audience, why would you want to call for the banning of this book, one you have certainly never read? It's fear. This work that Morrison has created: a story of darkness, of hopelessness and of a reality that a white male middle-class American could never come close to understanding is a thing of beauty; the lily that grows in the mound of shit. It speaks truth, it kills the demons by just naming them and it reminds the Reader that for some the miracle of living can be a living nightmare.

Mr. Holtzclaw wants a world where we won't be told of these realities.

I don't want to live in that world.

Toni Morrison doesn't get the respect she deserves and has rightfully earned. I think that part of this has to do with the unfortunate connotations people have regarding Oprah's Book Club and part of it stems from, if not outright racism and misogyny, than the racist and misogynist assumptions that Morrison is popular only because she is a nonwhite woman, liberal guilt etc. The latter is false: Toni Morrison has won the Pulitzer and the Nobel because she is an excellent author.

N.B. - Before I get jumped on by total strangers for making assumptions about Morrison's detractors, these are actual comments about her books, from Amazon.com:

"Toni Morrison is the most overrated author in America, it's only because of Oprah (the most overrated "personality" in America") that she is popular."

"You know, I know blacks have had a hard time in this world...I'm not naive...but there's a right and wrong way to tell us about your problems. This book is an example of the wrong way. To me it came off as preachy and heavy-handed."

"Once again, Toni Morrison puts an assortment of diatribes and racial angst into book form and masquerades it as literature with a moral message."

"What is actually between the covers of the book is 150 pages of the gross aspects of sex and femine hygene. That is not what makes brillant writing."

"The Bluest Eye does not celebrate the beauty of the black individual but instead simply and grotesquely trashes white characteristics (i.e. blonde-straight hair/blue eyes.) So if a little blonde-haired blue-eyed girl reads this book is she supposed to feel ashamed to have these characteristics?"

"I think it's terrible that Oprah Winfrey would recommend a book as anti-white as this. It's not as bad as some "black" literature that blames everything on white people, but it's close."

It's foolish to assume that the thoughts and experiences of women and of nonwhite American citizens is not worthy of writing about, and reviewers that slam the book as "anti-white" completely miss the point of themes of cultural hegemony, internalized hatred, taboos in beauty and sexuality, oppression, etc. And it's just darned lazy to discount this book's beautiful use of multiple narratives and excellent turns of phrase.

Morrison's literature often makes me angry and depressed, but not as angry and depressed as some of the reviews it gets.

I can't count the number of times I've picked up a Toni Morrison book from my collection but never managed to complete one. I'm ashamed to say the The Bluest Eye is the first book I've read by this legendary author. I've struggled with my review for several days but what I know for sure is that Toni Morrison exhausts and stretches me mentally as a reader. She requires you to think on a deeper more profound level. Morrison's writing is heavy with symbolism, I found myself bookmarking pages and returning to read them again.

Pecola Breedlove, is a young African-American girl who feels her dark skin (her overall appearance) is repulsive. She wishes for what has always been presented to her as “better”, she wishes for the blue eyes associated with white skin. This results in the rejection of her own brown eyes and self image. WOW! That in itself is enough to ponder upon and feel the torment in that type of longing. She feels that she would be pretty and accepted if only she had blue eyes.

Feelings of rejection, being dislike or hatred be it justified or unjustified is a part of life however racial self loathing within a child is unimaginable. Morrison's elegant prose leads to reader to ponder several concepts--Who made you feel that you were not beautiful or that one race is more beautiful than the other? Who has failed this child? As you delve deeper into this story you discover several people who did not protect this young girl. The sexual, physical, verbal and emotional abuse were disturbing and haunting. One of my favorite statements in this book sums up the story perfectly for me, "Something so grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society - a child; the most vulnerable member a female."

Set in 1941 in Toni Morrison's hometown in Ohio, "The Bluest Eye" tells about black girls surrounded by an Anglo white version of beauty and culture. There are references to the Dick and Jane series of reading books which show an idealized happy white family with no black faces in the books. Black girls were given white, blond, blue-eyed dolls as presents. Shirley Temple represented childhood beauty. This also influenced how black girls treated each other, and made them feel inferior.

Pecola Breedlove is a sensitive black girl with little self-confidence who lives in a dysfunctional family. She wishes for blue eyes to make her beautiful and loved. Her story is partly narrated by Claudia MacTeer, an emotionally strong girl from a nurturing black family. The poor black girls feel the effect of sexism, racism, and comparison to an idealized white middle class. There's lots of food for thought in "The Bluest Eye." The book has often been on banned book lists for its topics of incest, pedophilia, and racism.

I think this is one of the saddest and heart breaking stories I have ever read...

With her unique voice, Toni Morrison brings to life a set of different characters, and tries to give an insight even to the most un-redeemable ones. Because even if their actions are horrid, no one is born evil, not really. They lose their humanity and compassion when others hurt them beyond repair.

What happens to a little girl, that only wants to be seen and loved, when all around her people laugh at her, abuse her and hurt her? What happens to the soul of a child never truly loved? Pecola prays to have blue eyes, like the eyes of the beloved children in America, because maybe then, people will love her.

It's a book everyone should read, if only to develop empathy to the weak and mistreated souls in our world. And maybe, maybe if everyone reads such books, this world will be a better place.

i honestly don’t think i will ever emotionally recover from this.

BUT i will say hearing toni narrate this herself was a very special experience and really adds that extra breath of life into the story.

i'm scared of who i'll become when i don't have any more toni morrison to read.

there's no one like her on race, beauty, the cruelty of society, the way we carry past wounds with us, the attempt to love selflessly by people. 

the fact that this is a debut is unbelievable. possibly the best first book i've ever read.

pecola is an unforgettable character, and the way this manages to tell her story even when it's through the perspective of others is masterful. everything in this book is thoughtful, everything down to the blue shirley temple cup contributing to the story of an unloved little girl, victim to the tragedy that befell her parents before her. 

i feel at a loss for words. i desperately want to convince you to read this painful and upsetting and brilliant book — likely my favorite of the year.

bottom line: my 2000th read was a perfect one.

when you read a book that really speaks to you and makes you feel grateful to have the ability to read, this is how I feel right now. this is so heartbreaking and so beautifully written. pecola’s desire for blue eyes and struggle with internalised racism is one that can be recognised by so many and exactly why it’s difficult to read. it’s such a brutal experience that can make or break a person and it’s so upsetting to follow her 11 year old self descend into madness through desiring the impossible, the bluest eyes, rather than potentially learning self-love. (spoilers onwards) the conversation she has at the end with her imaginary friend will forever haunt me, I think that really sealed this book as a favourite for me. it is so chilling and difficult to see her truly deluding herself into believing that her eyes turned blue, her dream come true, and yet still not being happy and now obsessing over whether they’re the ‘bluest’. a true metaphor for beauty standards to this day and how difficult it is for women and young girls to ever be happy within their bodies and skin colour in a world where we’re constantly being degraded and compared. there’s so much more I could say, even her mom not believing she was raped is just the sad reality for a lot of girls especially in minority groups and it’s just upsetting. the pecola’s of the world truly deserve better

Reread (almost 20 years after my first read when I read this copy, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4..., which later fell apart.)

How did Pecola Breedlove come to wish for blue eyes? Who or what shaped her? How did her parents come to be the people they were? Why was love not lavished on Pecola as it was on those of lighter skin, of those not considered ugly, as she was? Why did the only scraps of affection she receive come from a “ruined” woman who lived upstairs and two young neighbor sisters, girls who understood not much more than Pecola did?

In later years Morrison would express her dissatisfaction with several technical issues in this, her first novel. I feel she’s being hard on herself, but she knows way more than I ever will. Her wisdom and insight start from the first page: There is really nothing more to say—except why. But since why is difficult to handle, one must take refuge in how.

I just read this today, and the rating system really doesn't apply to my feelings, which are still fresh, on this book : "I like it" "I really liked it", etc. I have NO idea how to rate this book.

I didn't like the book. As the author herself states in the afterward, "...this is a terrible story about things one would rather not know anything about." But at the same time, the story is engrossing, I found the back stories interesting, and really fell in love with the three little girls. Though some of the varying voices that tell their stories don't flow as well in telling their story, the character development is really amazing. The point of view through innocence in the girls makes the horrors and injustices all the more...horrific and upsetting.

This book evoked strong emotions in me, which, according to the author, was the point. She did that job well. I feel a strong sense of loss, disgust, revoltion, sadness, and frustration at not knowing how to "fix" things.

So how do you rate that?

This is a heavy, heavy book. Toni Morrison tells tragedy in such a way, the reader is still immersed in the simplicity and beauty around the suffering of the characters. No one is perfect, no one is completely damned. Each character is shown for their faults and struggles. The main character, Pecola, is a victim to everyone around her life's experience. She becomes the dumping ground for all of the hurts and rejection, though she has done nothing to deserve such. In the end she turns inward, trying to understand why she is so unwanted. Her delicate trust and nature, though beautiful in their own right, become the doorway allowing others in to her fragile soul.

Highly recommended, however, be prepared to hurt.

Please don’t be surprised to see that I gave this 5 stars. Toni Morrison has a Pulitzer and a Nobel, and she deserves them both.

Precious few people can write like she does. Dare I say it, but only a few times in a generation are we lucky enough to have a writer who was born to put pen to paper. I call her a writer and not a novelist or an author because that would be disrespectful to her talent.

Unfortunately, there are those who have read this book and act as if Toni Morrison is blaming the entire Caucasian community for the plight of one young African-American girl, and nothing could be further from the truth.

This is such a silly idea that it doesn’t even deserve to take up space in this review, but I’m mentioning it because there are people who say they hate this book simply because it is about a little girl who suffers deeply, and all because she happens to be African-American. How unfair to abused children, regardless of their skin color.

Maybe these people just don’t get it. Or maybe they’re inbred. I have a friend whom I suspect might be a little inbred, and she’s not racist, so that’s no excuse. No excuse at all.

Rather than provide a synopsis, I’ll add this paragraph from The Bluest Eye which sums up perfectly the depth and beautiful sorrow that this book possesses:

“All of our waste which we dumped on her and which she absorbed. And all of our beauty, which was hers first and which she gave to us. All of us–all who knew her–felt so wholesome after we cleaned ourselves on her. We were so beautiful when we stood astride her ugliness. her simplicity decorated us, her guilt sanctified us, her pain made us glow with health, her awkwardness made us think we has a sense of humor. Her inarticulateness made us believe we were eloquent. Her poverty kept us generous. Even her waking dreams we used–to silence our own nightmares. And she let us, and thereby deserved our contempt. We honed our egos on her, padded our characters with her frailty, and yawned in the fantasy of our strength.” -Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye

That quote is about an 11 year-old girl, so please keep that in mind if you decide to read this. It is intense and you will probably cry. Most people do.

I read this book several years ago, and it is so well-written that I find myself remembering vivid details about it all these years later. What a tragic yet poetic story this is, and one that will hopefully capture your heart like it did mine.