The Bluest Eye
Toni Morrison's first novel follows a young Black girl in 1940s Ohio who longs for blue eyes, believing they would make her loved.
Toni Morrison’s first novel is set in Lorain, Ohio, in the years after the Depression, and centers on Pecola Breedlove, a poor Black girl who prays for blue eyes, convinced that whiteness would make her beautiful and loved. Through several voices, Morrison shows how a community’s standards of beauty and worth crush a vulnerable child. Spare and devastating, it announced a major American writer.
Recommended by 4 People
Carissa Véliz
Toni Morrison is one of my favourite novelists. There are few writers who write so well, who are as insightful and as careful with words as she is, and as creative with words too.
Interview · May 2026
John McWhorter
I was in awe of the nuance Morrison achieves in her character portraits, singling out both men and women and understanding them deeply as they all cope with making the most of life in a small Ohio town
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