November 6, 2008

The Bluest Eye

Rating:
Awards: Oprah Book Club Selection, Audiofile Earphones Award
Author: Toni Morrison
Narrator: Toni Morrison and Ruby Dee
Category: Fiction
Publisher: Random House Audio
Release Date: 2007
Length: 2 hrs and 59 mins
Abridged

An Overview:
In The Bluest Eye, Toni Morrison offers an intimate peek into the lived of a broken family in the South during the 1940's.

Chronologically, the story begins when Cholly Breedlove's mother abandons him at four days old. Later on, his father also rejects him. Taken in by his Great Aunt for a short time, then on his own after her death, he grows up without learning how to love. He marries Pauline, a woman with a deformed leg, who works as a servant for a well to do White family.

She attempts to raise her two children despite her alcoholic husband's abuse, only able to escape from the harsh realities of her life by attending movies and daydreaming about what she could have had. The book changes between the perspectives of five speakers, permitting the author to elaborate on details that a Pecola, the eleven year old protagonist, would not normally have access to.

When Pecola is not in the first person, one of a number of other people speak. The primary narrator in the book is Claudia, another little girl in the same town. She and Pecola are friends despite the differences in their families. Claudia's family is close-knit and has clear expectations of their roles. She and her sister Frieda are often together, though Frieda is not one of the narrators.

Their father is strongly protectively of his children, throwing out a boarder who attempts to molest Frieda. Each of the people in the book describe Pecola as ugly. These voices eloquently create images of a young girl whose self esteem is utterly destroyed. To Pecola, beauty is defined as having White features, which she is unable to achieve.

Her dearest dreams are to have blonde hair and blue eyes. The idea that to be beautiful meant to be White was emphasized throughout the book. Fair skinned students were given preferential treatment, Claudia's White doll praised and the titles of the chapters taken from the classic Dick and Jane series of children's readers. The heartbreaking fate of this poor child was wrapped up with her family's inability to love her and their.

Sometimes you listen to a book for entertainment value. Sometimes, though, the author's message is crying out to be heard, whether or not it is a pleasant one. Toni Morrison's powerful messages about race, race, class and power imbalances need to be heard. The Bluest Eye was published in 1970 but is just as meaningful forty years later as it was when it first came out.

Incredibly, this was Toni Morrison's first published book, but you'd never know from her writing.Prepare yourself with a big box of tissues and don't listen right before bed, but do not pass up this book.

The Narration:
Skillfully read by Toni Morrison and Ruby Dee.

Audiobook reviewed by Sarah Gross