mass market paperback, 160 pages
English language
Published Nov. 8, 1972 by Washington Square Press.
Eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove, an African-American girl in an America whose love for blonde, blue-eyed children can devastate all others, prays for her eyes to turn blue, so that she will be beautiful, people will notice her, and her world will be different.
Toni Morrison weaves a story that deals heavily with the topic of beauty. There were some scenes in this book that were incredibly difficult to read, including scenes of the sexual assault of children. Toni Morrison is a really talented writer, and this book packs a serious punch.
As Toni lays out, "I focused, therefore, on how something as grotesque as the demonization of an entire race could take root inside the most delicate member of society: a child; the most vulnerable member: a female."
A truly devastating book in almost every regard.
