• What Is OWN?
    Watch the preview!
  • Oprah's Club
    Sign up for the official book club newsletter
  • On Demand
    Watch Oprah's interview with Uwem Akpan
  • Little Readers
    Give your child the gift of books

The Bluest Eye

The Bluest Eye

About the Book

Announced on April 27, 2000

The Bluest Eye is Toni Morrison's first novel, a book heralded for its richness of language and boldness of vision. Set in the author's girlhood hometown of Lorain Ohio, it tells the story of black, eleven-year-old Pecola Breedlove. Pecola prays for her eyes to turn blue so that she will be as beautiful as beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigold in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change—in painful, devastating ways. With its vivid evocation of the feat and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of it's fulfillment, The Bluest Eye remains on of Toni Morrison's most powerful, unforgettable novels—and a significant work of American fiction.