The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison

 

"If there is somebody with bluer eyes than mine, then maybe there is somebody with the bluest eyes. The bluest eyes in the whole world."

                -Pecola, from the novel

Our Page Turners group selected this novel as our representative banned book for this year. I believe I tried to read one of Morrison's books years ago and gave up on it. I didn't find this one extremely compelling either. I found it rather strange, but I am glad I read it. 

The story is set in 1941 in Lorain, Ohio. Pecola Breedlove is a young black girl with low self-esteem---convinced she is ugly because of her dark skin---and wishes for blue eyes. She has internalized the idea that "white is beautiful." This is one aspect of racism portrayed in the book. Others are the treatment of the black children and their parents by white folks in the town. Interestingly, chapters are begun with excerpts of the Dick and Jane readers of the time period, which portray a lily-white world. I enjoyed the parts of the book narrated by Claudia MacTeer, the nine-year-old daughter of Pecola's foster parents and a friend to her.

I had wondered why this book had been banned in some places and I guess I now know the answer. Not only is the racism ugly but there is domestic and child abuse and even incest involved in the story. Not sure of the need to ban such thoughts since they were at the that time, and still are a part of the real world. These things are not easy or fun to read about but they make the reader think! I am rating the book a 3. We will soon see what the group thinks...

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Page Turners' opinions ran the gamut in ratings, from 1-5. The average was 3.5 with many enjoying the excellent writing and feeling the importance of the theme at the time it was published. We very much wished we had a person of color in our group to share how they or others they know have experience racism. Most of us admitted we have been privileged to live as white people and could not really walk in the shoes of others such as blacks, Jews, Muslims, Indigenous people. 

The Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie

 

"That when you have two crimes precisely similar in design and execution, you find the same brain behind them both. I am looking for that brain, M. Giraud---and I shall find it. Here we have a true clue---a psychological clue. You may know all about cigarettes and match ends, M. Giraud, but I, Hercule Poirot, know the mind of man!"        -Hercule Poirot

I didn't realize this was only the second of Christie's long line of Hercule Poirot novels. I selected it because the title indicated a golf course. I am something of a golf fan---watching, not playing. I was disappointed that almost the only golf reference was the location of the first murder victim. 

Poirot and his friend, Arthur Hastings arrive in a small town in France after receiving a letter from businessman Paul Renauld, only to find him dead. Of course, there are many suspects---his wife, his son, a lover and a couple of others. Poirot has to use his "little grey cells" to do his usual sleuthing while avoiding the arrogant inspector M. Girard of the Paris Sûreté.

The story is told from Hastings' perspective which I enjoyed. I find there is usually a good bit of humor in Christie's mysteries along with the intrigue. I rate The Murder on the Links a 3.

Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann

 

"Travel in any direction that you will from Pawhuska and you will notice at night Osage Indian homes outlined with electric lights, which a stranger in the country might conclude to be an ostentatious display of oil wealth. But the lights are burned, as every Osage knows, as protection against the stealthy approach of a grim specter---an unseen hand---that has laid a blight upon the Osage land and converted the broad acres, which other Indian tribes enviously regard as a demi-paradise, into a Golgotha and field of dead men's skulls....The perennial question in the Osage land is, ' who will be next?'"      -reporter from Daily Oklahoman, 1929

After viewing the film "Killers of the Flower Moon" I was told I should read the book which I had not heard of before. Supposedly it held much more background information and I found that to be true. The book was thoroughly researched with about 40 pages of notes, references and bibliographies. Our Page Turners had read The Lost City of Z by this author in 2015. I gave it a 3 and the group's rating was 2.9 with most agreeing it was well-researched but not exactly a page-turner. I will rate this one a 4; it was a bit more of a page-turner. I can't say I enjoyed it since it made me sad and angry, but I do think good literature makes you feel something. The topic of abuse of our indigenous people is one I am familiar with but the treatment of the Osage in this story was especially heinous.

The story is set in Gray Horse, Oklahoma, an Osage settlement, in the 1920s where oil had been discovered years before making most of the Osage very wealthy, and sadly, many whites very covetous of their land and oil rights. By 1923, 24 tribe members had died mysteriously or violently. This included many of Mollie Burkhart's family---mother, 3 sisters and brother-in-law. Most law enforcement and others in authority were in the pocket of William K. Hale, known as "King of the Osage Hills," and did nothing toward solving what many had determined were murders. When the newly formed FBI became involved, Agent Tom White and his team eventually had some success. He is seen as a hero by the Osage.

Having seen the movie before reading, the characters seemed more vivid and the story more personal. Some like Mollie were easy to feel sympathy and sadness for and others were easy to hate. No spoiler here! I really liked that numerous photographs were included, not always the case with nonfiction. 

Grann is the author of the current bestseller The Wager, which I have on my want-to-read list.