Page Turners – November 2022 review
The Page Turners’ book for November was ‘The Bluest Eye‘ by Toni Morrison. The book was published in 1970 and was the first novel for this author, who later won the Pulitzer Prize for ‘Beloved‘. In telling the story of a poor black American family, it focusses on the notion of beauty and in particular the daughter of the family who believes that her life would be perfect if she had blue eyes.
We were in agreement that we did not enjoy the story – it was very depressing. However, it led to some interesting discussion about the lives of the poorest people in society and about the notion of people feeling they were not good enough because they did not have the right kind of looks. We discussed other things that might make people feel they were not as good as they might be, including accents, and explored our own prejudices. Sadly, we felt that the story could still happen in the modern world.
We also talked about the style in which the book was written and tended to agree that the language was almost poetic in its precision and acuteness with every word and word order being impactful, meaningful and delivered with intent. It was the beauty of the writing that enabled us to finish reading a story of relentless misery.
Due to Christmas festivities, next month’s meeting will happen early on 15th December.
Deborah Wallis, Convenor