The Bluest Eye

By Toni Morrison, 216 pages with afterword.

In terms of shock value it's up there with A Million Little Pieces. I like it much better than Song of Solomon though -- the structure and style is a little different (I would say it's more lyrical both in terms of word usage and in the way it's fragmented) and it really worked for me. There are lots of themes and ideas in the book and it's definitely not a light read, or a happy read. That being said, it's also a surprisingly fast read (I started reading at around 11am and finished by 2pm, even with flipping back and forth a few times). As much as the book is about racism in the days just before WWII, it's also about people. The children's voice is astonishing accurate and that makes the story all the more stark and just...it's an amazing book. Not what I usually would go for, but wow.