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Women's Fiction

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

List Price: $14.00
Your Price: $10.50
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: How it is.
Review: I love this book. The book explains the truth about how many little girls feel about their looks and about themselves, in general. This book can make you laugh and cry. This book can also, make you very confused, but at the end there is no confusing the books point about life and how a few people can ruin someone's life by selfishness or lack of compassion. I had to give it a five.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: a real heart breaker
Review: This book was so sad. The final chapter left me feeling a little hopeless and heart broken for Pecola. The ending was unexpected and I felt it made it worth reading. I felt some of the book was a little disjointed. I got confused about the point of a few characters. I loved Ms. Morrison's use of descriptive terms. Many phrases are like poetry. Overall, a very enjoyable but sad read. I would recommend to others.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Well-wrought
Review: The Bluest Eye is a very well written portrayal of a child who is without a semblance of parental love, goodness or guidance and the vagaries of the community within which she lives. This black child focuses on the attainment of blue eyes, evidently society's standard of perfection to her, as the "passport" to all she so desperately desires in her arid life. The reader is introduced to many well-conceived characters while getting to know Pecola. This book left me thinking about the many kindnesses we all do and do not demonstrate to each other in this world...and how much the smallest kindness is treasured by the recipient. Toni Morrison makes her readers think and feel, and that is always the sign of a first-rate author.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful! A Spiritual and Touching Book
Review: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison is such a beautiful and touching book. It is about a young African-American girl who believes the only way she can be considered beautiful is if she had blue eyes. Throughout the book, Pecola is determined to have blue eyes. Yet she discovers that beauty is measured by how caring, sensitive, intelligent, creative, clever, you are on the inside. This was an amazing book - well-written and more beautiful than the bluest eyes possible.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Beautiful
Review: If beauty is skin deep then you'd have to love the skin you're in to fully appreciate it. And how do we learn to love our, skin . . .by having its beauty validated by our families, friends, community, and society at large. Is there any question why Pecola's quest for the bluest eyes (what she believed to be the ultimate measure of beauty) became so totally consuming, to the point that the child drove herself mad? In The Bluest Eye, Morrison points out that beauty is as beauty does. She challenges her readership to re-evaluate our own notions of beauty. I have known for some time that this country's standard of beauty (the physical at least) is absent of anything reflective of an African presence. Morrison has validated that knowledge and through this novel, shares it with the world.

Like all of Morrison's work, The Bluest Eye uses music, spirituality, and familiar language (from an African-American perspective) to deliver a powerful message about the African-American experience. The fact that the novel is had for some readers to digest is indicative of the truth that it reveals for truth is always hard to swallow. I was not surprised that the book, when originally published, was banned in some parts of this country. The novel reveals a raw and ugly truth on our perception of beauty that that would certainly be rejected by mainstream America. This novel is recommended reading for the world. Enjoy!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Seeing through different eyes.
Review: The Bluest Eye by Ms. Morrison is a heart-wrenching, and thought provoking novel. This novel was a perfect example of fully developing the characters in a book. Pecola was never described like the other characters in the book like her mother and father, and the people in her community. Her direct description of herself and her life were not necessary because Morrison described the people who had a direct impact on her life. We see why her life is the way it is because we get a good in depth look at why her parents treat her the way they do. After reading some of the more negative reviews of this book given by other Amazon readers I have to wonder did they actually read the same book that I did? The only thing that I can say I agree with is the fact that the book does move slowly at times. One could even argue that this is not one of Morrison's more polished works. She herself even tells of the flaws that she feels are present in the novel. But, can we remember that this was her first published novel.

Pecola is a product of her environment. Her parents are an example of why people should not have children until they have dealt with all of the garbage and bad things that happened to them as children. The bad childhood experiences in parents lives will undoubtedly shape their children's futures. Pecola also represents the psychological damage done by a media and a society that has for centuries held up the image of white, blond hair, and blue eyes as the standard of beauty that even some whites can never attain let alone a young, poor, black girl. Pecola is a prime example of why African-American parents must always instill in their sons and daughters a sense of pride in their heritage, culture, beauty, and talents. Without this teaching our young African-American children are doomed to be Pecola's- individuals with low self-esteem who will always place their beauty and self-worth in abstract things or people.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Bluest Disappointment
Review: There is no doubt that Toni Morrison is a wonderfully gifted writer with a brilliant mind. She possesses very strong opinions which give light to here broad insight and amzazing intellect. However, some thoughts are better conveyed through an essay (or several essays), as opposed to a disorganized and unfocused novel. "The Bluest Eye" was a series of interesting philosophies helter-skelterly mingled with a depressing story of a girl's incestuous relationship with her father. Disappointing to say the least, I give this novel two thumbs waaaay down.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Depressing
Review: It was my first time reading something by Toni Morrison, and was sad to say that this book was very depressing, it jumped around alot, and she was overly descriptive. I wasn't sure if I was reading about snow capped mountains or the wicks of candles, when she used to convey different things about the way a person appeared, it was very distracting. The moral of the story was true to life and sad. I would not recommend this book.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: completely overrated
Review: I recently read this book because I know what a brilliant writer Toni Morrison is. She is one of the few writers whom can keep you mesmorized with such vivid descriptions and attention to detail. However I think she fails in 'The Bluest Eye'. The writing was completely fragmanted and disjointed. The charactors who were the focus in this book were so poorly developed. There were also charactors who were irrelevant to the story. Why all the description of Mr. Henry when he really did not have anything to do with the plot? Yet the other charactors besides the main charactor named Pecola never quite unfolded.

I am dismayed that this book ever made it on Oprah's Book Club collection. I assume they have somewhat of an alliance as Oprah starred in the doomed movie production of 'Beloved'. I do not expect all books to have a redemption factor or constantly pleasant circumstances. The novel 'She's Come Undone' was at times painful to read. However the author was able to write the horribly flawed main charactor with such love and empathy. I felt that 'The Bluest Eye' chronicled the hideous treatment of Pecole in such a rushed and gratuitous manner.

One positive aspect of this book is the ending. It was not predictable. The last chapter really left me heartbroken. Unfortunately, the ending could not come soon enough. I certainly hope Ms. Morrison's next book comes from the heart rather than a sensationalistic idea to yet publish another book to be featured on Oprah.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A literary masterpiece!
Review: Toni Morrison is one of the best fiction writers of this era, and she has proved it again and again. The Bluest Eye, Morrison's first novel, is a rich and heart-wrenching story with language so exquisite and beautiful that moved me in many ways.

The story is about Pecola, a girl whose only dream is to have blue eyes. Her perception of beauty is somewhat deluded, but that's the sad reality African Americans have endured for decades. The novel emphasizes self-hatred, but the focus in the story is not how one perceives one's beauty, but rather how others perceive it. The secondary characters are essentially important in the novel. Pecola, the focal character, is not quite as developed as the others. I think Morrison wanted the reader to comprehend other people's perception of Pecola's beauty -- or lack thereof. It is sort of an outsider looking in type of thing. Pecola's story is both tragic and thought provoking. One might wonder: how do I perceive beauty? Is beauty really in the eyes of the beholder?

This is -- without a stretch of doubt -- a thinker's novel. Oprah has picked an excellent book. Toni Morrison is a gifted storyteller. I strongly urge to read this book!


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