The Bluest Eye Audiobook By Toni Morrison cover art

The Bluest Eye

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The Bluest Eye

By: Toni Morrison
Narrated by: Toni Morrison
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The Bluest Eye, published in 1970, is the first novel written by Toni Morrison, winner of the 1993 Nobel Prize in Literature.

It is the story of 11-year-old Pecola Breedlove--a black girl in an America whose love for its blond, blue-eyed children can devastate all others--who 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.

©1970 Toni Morrison (P)2011 Random House African American Coming of Age Contemporary Fiction Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Women's Voices Heartfelt Inspiring Tearjerking Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

1993, Nobel Prize in Literature, Winner

“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)

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

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Beautiful Poetic Prose • Powerful Character Development • Thought-provoking Themes • Vivid Descriptive Language
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Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

Yes-- it was excellent. One of the best audiobooks I've ever heard. The book was great and the author's peerless reading of it only serves to make it all the more of a gripping experience.

What did you like best about this story?

Morrison's prose is so excellent. She perfectly writes with the voice of a child narrator-- indifferent, pragmatic, but never simplistic. I've never read/heard anything like it.

Have you listened to any of Toni Morrison’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

This one is my absolute favorite. The delivery is riveting-- so patient and emotive-- downright chilling at times.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yes

fantastic reading of an excellent book

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Loved reading it, adored listening to it. Great narrating, Ms. Morrison really brought the book alive. You might want to keep a box of tissues handy, there are parts that will break your heart . However, I still feel uplifted by this book. I highly recommend it.

One of my all-time favorite books.

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Pecola, it’s given away from the get go in the novel is not going to be a happy girl. What I wasn’t ready for was the slow winding noose encircling her, drawing ever so tighter into a place where resist as she might she can not deliver herself from. I felt a certain impotence witnessing this immolation of a girl. I knew a few Pecola’s, particularly in grade school. They really do fade, or better put we dim them. This book raises the question of how self hatred is learned and in some cases inherited. To read it now 50 years after it’s publication is to engage in an archeological exercise, but not to dust off some notion of how far we have come. No quite the opposite - how little we have progressed.

50 Years On -

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I'm embarassed to say that at thirty-seven years old, this is my first Toni Morrison book. Twenty to thirty minutes into this book, I found myself sobbing uncontrollably. For the first time in my life, I heard a beautiful voice articulate all the hurt, self-loathing, and self-destruction that us Black people all carry deep inside our pysche. Using beautiful and elegant prose, Ms. Morrison captured a generations-old wound I have always felt, but could never locate and identify. I have no idea how this book will touch or affect a white reader, but I can only hope it create an awareness (and disgust) of the psychological and cultural slaughter that was slavery in America and the intense feelings of superiority with once being and believing themselves to be the "master race", which continue play themselves out today. Every person should read this book. The collective horror it captures should haunt and educate us all. I can't wait to consume more of her books. The flood gates are now open for me.

Gutted

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I read along as I listened. I become mesmerized listening to her narrative. The printed word is grounding. But the text as filtered through my mind is enhanced by listening to the intonation and phrasing as read by the author

audible and literal

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I read this book as a teenager and it haunted me a bit. However, revisiting it as an adult and parent, I am truly moved my Ms Morrison's attention to detail and the wholeness of each character. All such sad stories but at the same time, so beautiful the way she pull it all together. Such a talent. She will be missed.

Disturbingly Beautiful

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this story took me in a ride I didnt expect. untill I briefly recaped the story for someone did I realize the play on words throughout the entire book.

whoa

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I struggled with tears,agony, and helplessness throughout this gut renching examination of the life of Peacola and those who contributed to her ultimate demise. There is so much to unpack in the pages, so much to understand, and so much to unlearn about what beauty is. Buy the written book and read it with a notebook, highlighter, pen, an open mind, and heart.

Heartbreaking...

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This was so raw. I love how I was able to emerge myself in the story. I know Piccola. I feel hurt for her. I understood the characters and could feel their lives. This was written beautifully. It is real. Great read.

Remarkable Work

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I loved hearing the emotion behind the words. It was a sensory experience. Love Audible!

Took a walk with Ms Morrison.

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