The Bluest Eye (1970)

Morrison's first novel builds a whole language around who gets to be seen as beautiful, safe or worth protecting. Pecola's wish for blue eyes is approached through shifting perspectives, including Claudia's memories, rather than left as one girl's private problem. The form makes social judgements audible inside intimate experience. It is devastating reading, with child sexual abuse central to the story; the precision of the writing never makes that harm easy.