Rating: 
Summary: An important book
Review: Pecola is not in the book as much as you'd think based on Oprah's discussion. The structure is odd (even Morrison talks of being dissatisfied with the way she wrote certain things.) But this book is incredibly powerful in its messages not only on race and sex and power but on what horrific damage we do to each other and our children by not honoring the beauty in us all. I, too, have been getting turned off of Oprah's recent selections because of what seems to be a running theme of abuse and betrayal, but Oprah was right about this one. If everyone read it, it WOULD change the world. PS: Morrison's use of language is stunningly beautiful. And don't skip the afterward. Her eloquence will blow you away.
Rating: 
Summary: The worst book I have ever read!
Review: I don't know if its just me, but this was simply the worst book I have ever read. I normally enjoy the "Oprah's Book Club" selections, however I found this selection disjointed, uninteresting and hard to follow. Knowing that this was the #1 paperback at the time that I purchased the book, I continually forced myself to keep reading the book because I thought that it would get better. It never did! I was so frustrated by the end that I had to tell someone about it!
Rating: 
Summary: Preachy, depressing, confusing, but at least its short
Review: According to the Amazon review, Toni Morrison expressed unhappiness with this book. She was right. It's a depressing trip through the hell that is one girl's life and it's not the brightest girl in the world either. She is there for people to do things to and you never learn much about except that she has dreams of having the bluest eyes even though she's black.Basically she is internalizing the anger and the hatred around her. This is the kind of book you read in college classes for an example of how racism and sexism messes with people's minds. It's got nice style, but it's pretty forgettable. Read anything else by Toni Morrison. She is an amazing and brilliant author and her books just get better with repeated readings. I might not dislike this book so much if there wasn't such a consistant high standard in her other works. Buy it only if you need to complete your Toni Morrison collection. Like I said in the title of this review. It is short so you'll only spend a week or two on it at most. I think I read my copy in 2 hours.
Rating: 
Summary: Yes, Pecola...
Review: When i was reading this book, there were some times when i had to put it down and take a break. This book isn't "just" for adolescent black girls or adult black women. This book is for males and females, of any color, of any walk of life. Pecola, Claudia, Frieda, and the Breedloves are all described and describe in such clear, eerie precision. They are not characters in a book, they breathe on their own. Through all the poverty, tears, fear, disgust, self-loathing, hate, wanting, sex, disbelief, and wishful thinking, this story is a melting pot of stories, each character adding his and her own ingredients that will shock and sadden you along the entire way, concluding with the frightening, unexpected (to me) finale.
Rating:
Summary: Lyrical Poetry
Review: The language of this book engaged me from beginning to end. The story is about humans becoming. Peccola is merely the recipient of all that has been handed down - her ugliness, her self loathing. I found the different points of view challenging. She draws the characters as complex beings, rather than one-dimensional monsters. If your looking for a happy ending, keep looking. Though Ms. Morrison admits to some faults in her afterword, the story moves and teaches, the most we could ask of any story teller.
Rating:
Summary: i love this book
Review: When you travel though the entirity of someone's life through the pages of a book, you begin to think and act as they do. I could only hope that after reading "The Bluest Eye", that my own utterances could compare to the thought process of Toni Morrison, a true sage. She speaks enormous truths throughout all of her books, but "The Bluest Eye" truly touched me. Her amazing eloquence and the most honest intent becomes delicate poetry traipsing through adolesence and into adulthood. Nobody understands their character more. Nobody explains them better.
Rating:
Summary: Come on, Oprah...
Review: This book was a waste of my time. Oprah had me believing this book was about a black girl named Pecola and how she thought that if she only had blue eyes, then everyone would love her. Instead, I read about incest, domestic violence, prostitutes, alcoholics, nasty-behaving white racists, and home after pathetic home with not a trace of love anywhere. This book is depressing and confusing. Maybe someone should tell Oprah to lighten things up a bit...and no more Toni Morrison!
Rating:
Summary: You Do Make A Difference
Review: I read the book in one sitting. I love how it's written - the beginning draws you in and you continue reading with hopes of understanding Pecola's story. The story shows the impact of unkind words and actions. The book takes you through the life of each character - all I really wanted to know about was Pecola - but in the end I realized in order to know Pecola, I had to know the people who affected her life. The story shows how words and actions compound and how people can be made to feel inadequate. In searching for adequacy they may hurt the very people they love. It's a survival thing - survival of the mind - which in the end, Pecola was unable to do. The story is sad and it doesn't shed a lot of hope. It proves you can distroy someone with words - maybe not with your words alone, but your words on top of other's. Maybe you were the first person to say hurtful things - maybe the last - it doesn't matter what order - the accumulation equals affirmation.
Rating: 
Summary: It is what it is, a start.
Review: First, this book was a good book. No, it was not Toni's finest piece, but how many people do you know that write an instant hit? As far as the matters within, well this story isn't suppose to be about only Pecola. It is a novel about the grotesqueness of those persons around Pecola and how they make her grotesque. This novel is about the dehumanization within the minds of people that are not at ease with themselves and therefore project their ugliness(not so much as physical)onto a little girl that does not deserve it. That is why Toni allows many stories to be told; you can see how these people become grotesque.
Rating:
Summary: Very Disappointed
Review: I have long been a fan of Oprah's show and have read many of her book club picks. Lately, I have been tired of reading about poor women from ghastly homes who somehow triumph above all. Her picks are a bit depressing! Oprah was really enthused about this book, so I thought I would give it a shot. Once again, I was disappointed. The narration was choppy and disconnected--it was hard to really feel Pecola's pain, since the author uses third person narration. The main idea of Pecola wanting blue eyes doesn't come out until the very end of the book. The author was trying to illustrate the sadness of racial self loathing, but I thought Pecola to be totally self-loathing, not just racially. Finally, the author works very hard to hold every white person in the book responsible for the young girl's disintegration, when it is really all the black people in her life who destroy her. I realize that this book was written in the 1960's, when racial predjudice was abundant, and the author is merely trying to paint a picture of the times, but I think she could have done a much better job with this story.
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