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A review by rlgreen91
The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
What a sad, sad book. And to be clear, the content is sad - the book itself is well-written. For me reading Toni Morrison feels like a good hug from a close friend or relative you haven't seen in a while. There's just something about the way she writes that just seems to envelope you. The sticking point is what she's writing about - usually something brutal, hard to swallow, and designed to make you think.
The Bluest Eye certainly satisfies all of these criteria. It's hard to pick one thing to focus on, but I'll go with a question I saw in my online book club discussion. Someone asked how the freedom of one character, Cholly, compared to the freedom of elderly Black women as described in an earlier passage. In my opinion, Cholly's freedom is freedom from other people, from community and the benefits and responsibilities that come from living in community with other people. He still has to conform to social norms, i.e. behave himself, if he doesn't want to suffer too many bad consequences. But Cholly doesn't have any bonds to others that bind him and impact how he lives his life. For the elderly Black women, freedom is more about freedom from societal expectations. They still live in community with other people, and have benefits and responsibilities that come with that and that shapes how they live their lives. But they no longer feel as pressured to conform to social norms, especially since they're less likely to suffer bad consequences as a result.
This is where Morrison makes you think - what does it mean to be part of a community and to be in community with others? How is this distinct from living among people and in a community? One of the key themes of the TV show "The Good Place" was T.M. Scanlon's question of "What do we owe to each other?" It's easy to jump from there to the question of "What happens when we decide we don't owe each other anything?" But Morrison's depiction of Cholly makes you think - what happens when we feel like we do owe some people something, but there is no one left for you to owe?
It's a sad book, but short, which is why I sailed through it, even if my heart was breaking the whole while. I'm not sure what I'll pick up next but it'll be something given that reading is my latest activity of choice to disconnect from work. 5 stars.
The Bluest Eye certainly satisfies all of these criteria. It's hard to pick one thing to focus on, but I'll go with a question I saw in my online book club discussion. Someone asked how the freedom of one character, Cholly, compared to the freedom of elderly Black women as described in an earlier passage. In my opinion, Cholly's freedom is freedom from other people, from community and the benefits and responsibilities that come from living in community with other people. He still has to conform to social norms, i.e. behave himself, if he doesn't want to suffer too many bad consequences. But Cholly doesn't have any bonds to others that bind him and impact how he lives his life. For the elderly Black women, freedom is more about freedom from societal expectations. They still live in community with other people, and have benefits and responsibilities that come with that and that shapes how they live their lives. But they no longer feel as pressured to conform to social norms, especially since they're less likely to suffer bad consequences as a result.
This is where Morrison makes you think - what does it mean to be part of a community and to be in community with others? How is this distinct from living among people and in a community? One of the key themes of the TV show "The Good Place" was T.M. Scanlon's question of "What do we owe to each other?" It's easy to jump from there to the question of "What happens when we decide we don't owe each other anything?" But Morrison's depiction of Cholly makes you think - what happens when we feel like we do owe some people something, but there is no one left for you to owe?
It's a sad book, but short, which is why I sailed through it, even if my heart was breaking the whole while. I'm not sure what I'll pick up next but it'll be something given that reading is my latest activity of choice to disconnect from work. 5 stars.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Incest
Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Mental illness, Racism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, and Racial slurs
Minor: Miscarriage and Misogyny