Fourth Friday Book Club to read 'The Bluest Eye' by Toni Morrison
Fri, Feb 23 2024, 2pm
Next up for the meeting of UMRA’s Fourth Friday Book Club, on February 23 via Zoom, is The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. Published in 1970, it was her debut novel. Morrison was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1993.
There are many themes reflected in the novel, summarized as wholly and uniquely outside the Eurocentric ideals of relationships, family, beauty, and lifestyle.
Set in 1941 in Lorain, Ohio (Morrison’s hometown), it is mainly the story of Pecola Breedlove. The title of the book refers to Pecola's longing for blue eyes and blonde hair, much prized in the Afro-American community in which she lives.
At the outset, we learn that Pecola, at 11 years of age, was raped and impregnated by her father, the details of which are very vivid. As such, the book has been challenged in numerous school districts by parents.
“There are many novelists willing to report the ugliness of the world as ugly,” a New York Times reviewer wrote in describing Morrison’s “considerable power and tenderness” in a November 1, 1970, review of the novel. “The writer who can reveal the beauty and the hope beneath the surface is a writer to seek out and to encourage.”
All UMRA members are welcome.
Questions? Please contact Dorothy Marden [email protected] or Maggie Catambay.
Upcoming Events
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