The Bluest Eye

Have you ever seen a Devil's Claw? According to Wikipedia, "Harpagophytum procumbens, most commonly Devil's Claw, is a plant of the sesame family, native to South Africa. It got its name from the peculiar appearance of its hooked fruit....Devil's claw can be used externally to treat sores, ulcers, boils and skin lesions."

I only bring up the devil's claw because it grows wild where I grew up; now and again my sisters and I would be walking along a cow path in the pastures and one would be clinging to our socks unbeknownst to us. They're ugly as hell, and tough to extract from footwear, but we kept them nevertheless in mason jars or ziplock bags once we got home again. The devil's claw has a powerful form and is a wonder to behold, for all it's ugliness. The Bluest Eye is like that.

Now, as a white person, I was a little put off by the insistent, pervasive, and hateful attitude of the characters toward my my kind. I was not, on the other hand, surprised by it. I suppose I'll never never be black in this life thusly I'll never, as Obama's minister so eloquently put it, be called a nigger. Even so, I am in possession of an imagination, and rage is good to purge. Like vomit, or enlightenment, a bowel movement, an orgasm, or the tiniest bubble of epiphany this book gives, and gives, and gives some more. Until the end. Then the dear little being who wants the bluest of all eyes is destroyed. Like a pig to slaughter. Ah, I know this happens everyday, but it's rarely this well done. The author is a custodian, a medium; how else can it be done? Surely this work isn't hers. People don't choose difficult, albeit honorific, journeys like this do they?

It's funny that you find those old devil's claws after they find you. Now and again I'll read this book just like now and again I'd look at those twisted black roots. I shook them out of their confinement on really windy days just to watch them sail back into the prairie. I'll likely take this book to my bookseller in the end. They were never mine, you know?