Were you familiar with The Bluest Eye before your recent reading of it? If you’d read it before, how has your interpretation or opinion of the novel changed since you first encountered it?
I was aware that Toni Morrison had written this book but had never read it. I didn’t really know what it was about. At the time it came out I was just out of college and starting my nursing career. I wasn’t reading a lot then and had I known what it was about I definitely would not have read it.
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I know I read it for a book club challenge about 15 years ago, but I had very little memory of it (might be because I listened to it rather than reading it, and I remember doing so on vacation so I likely wasn’t paying attention). Morrison’s works weren’t taught when I was in high school - which is too bad, because I think many would have benefitted from discussing the novel. I was surprised at how relevant it still is. It made quite the impression on me this time around.
I had read The Bluest Eye shortly after it was first published within a literature class at my university. My original interpretation, which encompassed, for me, many bold, new topics and better understanding of the influence and weight of family, neighborhood and community, has only widened and saddened me upon this rereading.
I’d never heard of this book before. It wasn’t until my friend told me that she read that in the 70s that I looked at the publication date. Of course, I’ve heard of Toni Morrison. But this is the first I’ve read her work.
I had never heard of the book previous to seeing it being featured on BookBrowse.
I have been thinking about reading Beloved which I am hoping will be a positive experience for me .
I had heard of the book, but had not read any of Morrison’s books. She is a skillful writer with beautiful prose. I will read another one of her books. I do not like exlicit sex or depravity in books. I don’t think I’m a prude, but details of Soaphead’s involvement with young girls, Pecola’s rape, and the cat cruelty seemed excessive.
I read The Bluest Eye ten years ago. Rereading it, I noticed one generation of abuse bore the next generation’s abuse. It makes it doubly hard to pull out of the cycle because you are drawn to live the live you have become accustomed to as a child. That doesn’t mean it is good, but it becomes what the person is used to and they fall back into it. In a way, they don’t know any other way.
This is the second time I have read this book. With maturity come wisdom!
Or so I think. Second time around, this book seemed so much more devastating. A repeating cycle with no end in sight. I was more of an emotional read for me. My younger self read this book because of an assignment. It mattered then but maybe they were just words to get through. My mature self could read behind the words. Excellent read for and age and any decade.
I had never heard of this book before I read it. I was warned by several people in my book club that is was very unpleasant, but I like to make up my own mind. After reading it, I have to agree that it was very unpleasant to read and I will likely not read it again.