The Bluest Eye cover art

The Bluest Eye

A Novel

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The Bluest Eye

Written by: Toni Morrison, Jacqueline Woodson - introduction
Narrated by: Toni Morrison, Karen Murray
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NATIONAL BESTSELLER • A PARADE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME • From the acclaimed Nobel Prize winner—a powerful examination of our obsession with beauty and conformity that asks questions about race, class, and gender with characteristic subtlety and grace. • With a new introduction by Jacqueline Woodson.

“So precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry”—The New York Times

In Morrison’s acclaimed first novel, Pecola Breedlove—an 11-year-old Black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others—prays for her eyes to turn blue: so that she will be beautiful, so that people will look at her, so that her world will be different. This is the story of the nightmare at the heart of her yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. Coming of Age Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction
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What the critics say

A PARADE BEST BOOK OF ALL TIME

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK!

“So precise, so faithful to speech and so charged with pain and wonder that the novel becomes poetry.” —The New York Times

“A profoundly successful work of fiction. . . . Taut and understated, harsh in its detachment, sympathetic in its truth . . . it is an experience.” —The Detroit Free Press

“This story commands attention, for it contains one black girl’s universe.” —Newsweek

Featured Article: 10 Best Toni Morrison Audiobooks for Discovering an Icon

Few authors are as universally beloved as Toni Morrison, and for good reason. The Lorain, Ohio native dominated the literary scene from the moment she burst onto the stage in 1970, with her debut novel The Bluest Eye. A packed career of novels, poetry, short fiction, children's books, nonfiction and plays followed, along with a stack of awards to boot. A Nobel Prize? A Pulitzer Prize? The first female African American editor in the history of celebrated publishing company Random House? You name it, Toni Morrison has won it and done it. With such an incredible body of work in audio, it can be difficult to know where to begin. For longtime fans of Morrison and newcomers alike, we’ve gathered a selection of some of her greatest. Here are the best Toni Morrison audiobooks to add to your library today.

Featured Article: 10 Best Toni Morrison Audiobooks for Discovering an Icon
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I had no idea how early in life the message of worthlessness is imprinted in black children. Toni Morrison's writing is really prose and beautiful to hear in her own voice

revolutionary book for me

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The performance is excellent, the story compelling and the analysis is easily digestible. It is definitely worth listening to. For those who can't stomach things like sexual violence, stay away. but if you're able to pull threw from the few scenes, I recommend whole heatedly.

It was good

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Her voice is intoxicating. The story is deep and thought provoking. I definitely recommend this book. I absolutely loved it.

Wow

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This was a very emotionally difficult book to get through, challenging to accept, and powerful in imagery. Toni Morrison reads it well, but slowly. I think the slowness is good for comprehension, but if you listen when very tired it may make you more tired. Other than that, very well done. I recommend listening to the author's note at the end as well.

Well done

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How daunting a task it must have been to describe with such eloquence a very dark subject matter. The reader was led down a picturesque path of every scenario and an insight of every character. She succeeded in not casting judgment however the sadness still prevails for all the "Picolas" out there.

Thought provoking...well done narrative

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