by Cathryn Conroy (Dublin, Ohio): Reason No. 1 I Read This Book: From February 18, 2026 through February 18, 2027, Ohio is celebrating the life, literature, and legacy of Toni Morrison, a native of Lorain, Ohio and the first African American woman to win the Nobel Prize in Literature. I recently moved back to Ohio, so I want to join in this celebration and plan to read several of Morrison’s books this year, starting with this one.
Reason No. 2 I Read This Book: I read banned books. And it’s hard to come up with a title that has been challenged more frequently over a longer period of time than “The Bluest Eye.”
Published in 1970, this debut novel from author Toni Morrison is an emotional punch in the heart as it shows how racism is insidiously internalized by young Black girls and then poisons the rest of their lives. It’s bold and brazen. It’s searing and seductive. It’s tender and tough. And I was spellbound from page one.
This is the story of three Black girls in 1940 and 1941 in Lorain, Ohio. Claudia, who is nine, narrates the story. Her sister Frieda is 10, but seems years old and wiser. And their friend Pecola Breedlove, who is 11, is the primary character, the one who thinks of herself as being so ugly that she also feels hideous inside. She believes that having blue eyes will make her beautiful, and she prays to God every day that her wish will be granted. While Claudia and Frieda are poor, they are truly loved and cherished by their parents. Pecola, who lives in a family filled with violence and abject poverty, is severely abused as she is raped and impregnated by her father, Cholly.
The ending, which is a literary feat unto itself, is heartbreaking as Pecola, who just a little girl, descends into madness as the adults around her so severely betrayed and harmed her.
This piercing, brilliant novel takes readers into the legacy of slavery and the very heart of racism. The writing is hauntingly lyrical and emotionally devastating—and should be required reading for all of us.
