Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye." Gary Krist, writing in The New York Times, said it was an "ingenious and starkly original first novel." A review in the San Francisco Chronicle compared it to Catch-22, and Thomas Pynchon's V. and The Crying of Lot 49. Honors Quality Paperback Book Club New Voices Award Finalist, Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award New York Times Notable Book References 1999 American novels 1999 science fiction novels Novels by Colson Whitehead Novels set in New York City Postmodern novels 1999 speculative fiction novels Works set in elevators 1999 debut novels Anchor Books books