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Reviews tagging 'Racism'

The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

797 reviews

challenging emotional reflective sad

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dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

This book was astonishing. The prose was absolutely magical. Toni Morrison’s writing is unmatched and inspiring. Her ability to speak so poetically is perhaps my greatest adoration. 

This book covers many topics in ways that I found to be so effective and concise, while also still being poetic and indirect. The discussions of colorism, racism, sexism, and trauma were incredibly impactful. Inter generational trauma is not something often covered in the books I read, but it was done so effectively in The Bluest Eye. 

This book is worth an endless amount of rereads and is absolutely necessary for education and people of various walks of life. 

I have never read a book quite like this.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I'd like to start this review by saying I would never read this book again. That is not to be confused with the quality of this book, however. Impeccable storytelling, I
appreciate how it makes the readers work to piece together the story but the story was simply horrific experience after horrific experience. It’s weirder because you know what the worst of the story will be in the first few pages but it still shakes you when it eventually does. I’ll continue the rest of my review in my book but yeah. Best book I’ve read this month so far. 


 


Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

haunting and tragically poignant. pecola breedlove deserved better

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dark sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

What an insane debut novel. This isn't my first novel by Morrison, though, so I feel like her later work is better than this one. Of course, it's beautifully written. The way she chooses her words and sentence structures makes me go insane in a good way. I feel like if I were to closely study The Bluest Eye and analyze it, I'd like it more. But overall, if a story shocks me so much to the point where I need a break, I'd say the author did a good job. 

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

A difficult book.  The Afterword alludes to the difficulty of writing this book, where Toni Morrison discusses that to write too much is to objectify Pecola, to turn her into the object of pity...but to write too little is to disappear her, is to miss telling, really telling.  And that is the difficulty of this book.

How is it a woman can write about incest from the point of view of the aggressor --the excuses he makes for himself--how does anyone know that?
And what is the interest in writing that story?

In Bastard out of Carolina, Dorothy Allison writes out of her own need to tell, which is different.  Toni Morrison is writing about something else: the vulnerability of all women and all children, because of the vulnerability of the most vulnerable.

It is a book with signature Toni Morrison moments, where language and thoughts blend in a magical place where both what she is saying and how she is saying it are unusual and compelling, where language takes you on a little trip.

I would say the "blue eyes" pieces of the novel are not that: it's too over-thought, she is pushing for something she wants to repel, and it doesn't totally work.

But where the two sisters are in conversation, or the description of the light-skinned black woman and her perception of herself...there are moments in this book that are perfectly brilliant.

That she would describe this book as "about the friendship... between two little girls"...(in the documentary about her, "The pieces that I am")...is, I feel, misleading.

I was interested in the book's discussion on "ugliness"...like in Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, "ugliness" is spoken of but never discussed, never interrogated (even though central to the plot).  However, in this book, when someone uses the word "ugly" about Pecola, it's almost like there are quotation marks around it, it is very self-aware, it is asking just by being there, what does ugly mean?  Ugly to whom?  Ugly in what way?  

This book has so many layers.  A worthwhile read.

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This read is poignant and important, though it is not gentle. It takes on internalized and external racism, generational trauma, and the harm of lack of diverse representation in media. It's a stunning read, but review the content warnings. The end includes an excellent afterward by the author that delves into her choice to explore these themes through the lense of such a traumatic, unaverage case. I was disappointed that she chose to equate homosexuality with sexual indifference and derangement. 

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Expand filter menu Content Warnings
challenging dark sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This is an objectively good book. It wasn’t an enjoyable read, though. A searing portrait of the horrors of societal and internalized racism, misogyny, and hatred. 
Excellent audiobook read by the author. 

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