Friday Friyay: Book Beginnings, Blog Hops Friday 56

I am not as consistent at posting on Fridays as I used to be, but here I am, doing my best once again. I actually get so much joy out of visiting new blogs, revisiting old ones and seeing everyone thriving! 

On Fridays we go to Book Beginnings at Rose City Reader, hosted by Gilion Dumas, and Friday 56 at Freda's Voice, hosted by Freda. This week I'm featuring a read for the book club at work: The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. She sadly passed away last month and this is my first experience reading her writing.

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 and beloved as all the blond, blue-eyed children in America. In the autumn of 1941, the year the marigolds in the Breedloves' garden do not bloom. Pecola's life does change- in painful, devastating ways. 

What its vivid evocation of the fear and loneliness at the heart of a child's yearning, and the tragedy of its fulfillment. The Bluest Eye remains one of Tony Morrisons's most powerful, unforgettable novels- and a significant work of American fiction.

Let's get to it! For BB I'm cheating a little and sharing the beginning of the Foreword rather than the novel, since it really stuck with me. 


Book Beginnings:

Foreword - 'There can’t be anyone, I am sure, who doesn’t know what it feels like to be disliked, even rejected, momentarily or for sustained periods of time. Perhaps the feeling is merely indifference, mild annoyance, but it may also be hurt. It may even be that some of us know what it is like to be actually hated— hated for things we have no control over and cannot change.' p.ix

Yes, that'll do it. I think everyone can recognize themselves in the feelings Morrison describes. In the Foreword she continues on speaking about the damage done when that rejection or dislike is internalized and this foreword definitely prepped me for the gravity of what The Bluest Eye describes, even when her tone in the novel seems very kind.

Friday 56:

'Except for Marie’s fabled love for Dewey Prince, these women hated men, all men, without shame, apology, or discrimination. They abused their visitors with a scorn grown mechanical from use.' p.56

This phrase is part of a larger argument, made about prostitutes. I haven't actually gotten this far in the novel yet, so I'm not quite sure what is happening. However, I'm very intrigued by their backstory, their role in the plot and what they might end up doing with their anger. I can't say it's probably not justified.

Have you read The Bluest Eye or any of Toni Morrison's other works? Leave a comment with the link to your Friday post and I'll be happy to drop by!

I've also rediscovered the gem that is Book Blogger Hop, hosted over at Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer.

Book Blogger Hop

The question for today is: Do you read classics? If so, what is your favourite?

Isn't this just the most perfect question for me to come back to?! I have a whole page dedicated to the 100 Classics I'm reading/want to read/have read, inspired by the Classics Club. It's really hard to pick a favourite, but below is a small list because I can't pick just one:

• Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte
• Les Miserables by Victor Hugo
• The Diary of a Nobody by George Grossmith
• The Awakening by Kate Chopin
• All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich M. Remarque (I cried over this one!)
• The Master & Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (a riot of a read!)

There are so many more, but this is a fair start! Can't wait to see what Classic recommendations I'll pick up from this week's hop!