Toni Morrison, Unknown: The Bluest Eye (Paperback, 1972, Pocket Books)
mass market paperback, 160 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 1972 by Pocket Books.
Each night Pecola prayed for blue eyes.
In her eleven years, no one had ever noticed Pecola. But with blue eyes, she thought, everything would be different. She would be so pretty that her parents would stop fighting. Her father would stop drinking. Her brother would stop running away. If only she could be beautiful. If only people would look at her.
When someone finally did, it was her father, drunk. He raped her. Soon she would bear his child...
(back cover)
Toni Morrison weaves a story that deals heavily with the topic of beauty. There were some scenes in this book that were incredibly difficult to read, including scenes of the sexual assault of children. Toni Morrison is a really talented writer, and this book packs a serious punch.
As Toni lays out, "I focused, therefore, on how something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society: a child; the most vulnerable member: a female."
A truly devastating book in almost every regard.
