From the back cover: "Toni Morrison's first novel is a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain, Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom, Pecola's life does change - in painful, devastating ways.
"With its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of it fulfillment, The Bluest Eye remains one of Morrison's most powerful, unforgettable novels - and a significant work of American fiction."

This was a quick read but kind of hard to understand in places..... the afterword by the author clarified a few things - it was actually her first novel but didn't get much attention at the time of its release, but of course sold pretty well when rescued by the Oprah Book Club.

I remember listening to an audiobook of Jazz by her, and liking it - will probably seek out other works of hers soon.....

Sending this off as a RABCK to ciloma. Enjoy!

And in a weird bit of serendipity, right after releasing this, a quote from the author about this book popped up on the sidebar of this page:
"I wrote my first novel just because I wanted to read it."

2011-10-22 => This arrived safely in the mail. Thanx for the surprise - I needed it on this gloomy rainy day!

2022-07-02 => I found this to be a quick read. Much of the treatment of Pecola was hard for me to read. (Can you say 'trigger?') Parts of it felt disjointed and somewhat out of place. In the end, I understood why the author felt those parts needed to be in the book and wondered how else she could have incorporated them. I'm not sure there was a better way. A sad story about the human condition.

Dropped off in Little Free Library on Olympic Ave