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A Patch of Blue

3.91 of 5 stars 3.91 · rating details · 481 ratings · 56 reviews

With over 1.5 million copies in print, here is a novel of great power and beauty in which a blind white girl and a black man beset by hardships find love together. "Its impact will leave you gasping".--Saturday Review Syndicate.

Paperback, 144 pages

Published April 13th 1988 by Warner Books (first published 1961)

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Mar 06, 2008 Lisa rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone.

"Sleena, you blind tomato!" Who could ever forget Selena's evil mother and feckless grandfather drunk and berating her? Though now I can't remember if she was actually the mother or aunt. This is a remarkable story of a young blind woman (blinded in a horrible accident) kept sheltered by her ignorant, and yes, evil, guardians. Selena, finally allowed by her keepers to be escorted to a park to do bead work (her occupation)meets a young black doctor. When he figures out the reality of Selena's sit...more

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Feb 02, 2008 Penny rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: people with an open mind

Shelves: contemporary-works

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Dec 13, 2010 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: kindred-characters

I read this at fourteen, I think, and absolutely loved it. Of course, at that age, I loved everything I read! I'm much more cynical now.

It's the story of a very poor, abused, blind girl and her first love. I wish the goodreads synopsis (and book cover!) didn't reveal any more than that, because the late revelation had such an impact on me. I would want other teenage girls to read the book in just the same way. (Yes, I know it was made into a rather famous movie).

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Jan 11, 2013 Star rated it 2 of 5 stars

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. For some reason, I couldn't get into the book. The cover and back were a major give away, and that took away all the suspense. I was graced with the knowledge of being black, so there was no surprise. I read this during Lit. class and my teacher kept on emphasizing the "foreshadowing". I catch on pretty quickly, but I didn't in this. The book was neither good nor bad. It's plain, it wasn't heartwarming, it wasn't emotional. I couldn't relate to Selina and despised her for her ignorance many time...more

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Dec 29, 2012 Lauren Hackbarth rated it 2 of 5 stars

I don't normally pick up love stories, but I just couldn't help myself with this one when I saw it at a book sale. I found it simple and complex at the same time. My heart goes out to the main character, Selina. There is just something about a person that has to endure a filthy lifestyle and is forced to play a part they never wanted or asked for that just gets to me. She was not made for this ("this" being a drunken household, a whore for a mother, being used and unappreciated, and being verbal...more I don't normally pick up love stories, but I just couldn't help myself with this one when I saw it at a book sale. I found it simple and complex at the same time. My heart goes out to the main character, Selina. There is just something about a person that has to endure a filthy lifestyle and is forced to play a part they never wanted or asked for that just gets to me. She was not made for this ("this" being a drunken household, a whore for a mother, being used and unappreciated, and being verbally and physically abused to the point of being raped by one of her mother's customers....people were never intended to be made for treatment that diminishes their inner worth.). Then she goes to the park one day and meets someone that truly sees past her scars and blindness to the value underneath the neglect. Unknowingly, she's observed by a man who sees her in a moment of vulnerability and falls in love with her humanity despite all her flaws and the complications of even hoping to establish a relationship. Yet, Gordon brings out the best in her and helps her to see what she's worth despite the consequences.

One thing I really liked was that many of her thoughts are what women think or would think in her situation. She's very innocently blunt in her speech. Very sincere. Little things like:

"I had been too happy. That's dangerous. One should never be too happy."

"And now, since I know you, I know that "friend" is the grandest, biggest and best word..."

More complicated things like:

"I never meant to say those words. The words said themselves." (in reference to saying I love you)

"I was ashamed as I had never known to be ashamed. I was--nothing. I had nothing, could do nothing--thread beads on strings, that was all. I was blind, unsightly...What had got into me? I had told a man 'I love you' and, like a dish of cold unwanted food, my love was tossed back at me. Shame!"

And sad things like when she starts to realize what had all been done to her and the true cost:

"Why couldn't it have been a man I loved--who loved me? Why had my decency, my pride as a girl, a woman, been torn so savagely by an unknown marauder? Why, why and oh why? After the day I'd just spent, why did I have to think only of these dreadful things? Was I born with a wicked heart? Was I always being punished for my born wickedness? Would it turn out that meeting--knowing, yes and loving Gordon would follow on, turn out not to be fine, clean and wonderful? Sitting under the tree, thinking over my life, I couldn't figure out how anything good, lasting good, could be for me."

The ending is what you would expect. Events, people, the world, fear, and a bunch of other stuff pull them apart. But the way it ends is not really an ending to me. It's one of those books where you can write the ending for yourself because it leaves room for the imagination to linger. Knowing how much they love each other and want each other, I think it's very probable that the hero and heroine get a second chance. There is nothing that cannot be found if sought. I think the main characters are brave enough to seek it and strong enough to maintain it.(less)

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Jun 29, 2012 Krystal rated it 4 of 5 stars

At first glace, I hated this book. It did not hold my interest at all, and I did not appreciate the way my freshman english teacher shoved it down my throat. Every word was digested by force. I held no pity, nor passion for Selena or Gordon. The mother and the aunt bored me. And, I couldn't care less about Oh Mr. Faber. It bothered me quite a bit that many of my fellow classmates couldn't read aloud as fast as I, because I just wanted to finish the book, complete the review, pass the test and mo...more

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Aug 19, 2011 Leslie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, not-worth-reading

Manipulative melodrama. Kata piles on the hardships: prostitute mother, a murderer for a father, alcoholic grandfather, abuse, rape at the hands of one of her mother's clients, poverty, isolation, boring work, constant insults, the prospect of being forced into prostitution with men who get off on having sex with a blind girl. Did I mention she's blind? But she's untouched by all the sordid reality of her life. Because she's pure in heart. We know she's pure in heart because she's blind. And blo...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was a quick read, inspired by watching the film and really liking the acting. Unfortunately the book didn't have the same tidy ending the film did, so I was left sad and disappointed. Although I don't know how well researched the book was in terms of understanding how a victim of acid burns would manage, it wasn't an enraginly bad interpretation of blindness on the part of the author. When it really counted in the novel, the blindness of the protagonist wasn't made so central as to be fake...more

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Jul 02, 2010 Neil Schleifer rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-fiction

A great character study of a young blind girl being raised by her abusive mother and alcoholic grandfather in the 1960's and how one man can make a difference in the life of someone else.

This is the source material of an equally wonderful film. The book is told from the perspective of "Sleena" (that's how her drunken guardian's pronounce her name -- Selina", an 18 y/o girl who was blinded by her mother in a domestic abuse incident when she was 8. Kata captures Sleena's voice beautifully -- resig...more

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Aug 11, 2012 zespri rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Found in an op shop and thought it looked interesting. When I looked it up on Goodreads it had another title "A Patch of Blue", and has also made into a film.

I much prefer this title for the book, the line is from a poem, which features in the story. This cover also gives nothing away about the rather disturbing ending, and I do wish I had not seen the other cover featured on Goodreads.

Selina is blind. She has been brought up by her mother who has no parenting skills or empathy whatsoever, and S...more

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Sep 18, 2012 Allison rated it 3 of 5 stars

If any book should be sold without a cover image and blurb, it's this one. I initially read it back in high school, ignored the blurb on the advice of the teacher, and was surprised by the twist ending. The twist ending is the best part of the book, I feel like it's crucial to the story if the reader is as blind as Selina, the main character. Without being surprised by the end, the book is still interesting, but very depressing. That's all I'll say about it, in hopes you haven't yet read the boo...more

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May 22, 2010 Jaye rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this in ninth grade for school. I don't remember being impressed by it.

I know that I didn't actually understand parts of it (and I was a very good reader) as I remember going back and rereading parts because I couldn't figure out how the story had gotten to where it was!

I suppose that for the time it was written it would have been rather provocative.

I thought it was kinda smutty for a 14 year old in a Catholic school to be reading.

Funny, I haven't heard of the book since then. It was a l...more

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Sep 29, 2008 Duncan rated it 4 of 5 stars

When I first started reading "A Patch of Blue", I didnt like it very much. But slowly it started to grow on me. The story takes place in an un-named big city in a poor district. The time is also hard to tell. It does not say for sure but there is alot of open racism so I am guessing it is in the time when blacks were hated. The main character or the narrorator is a young lady at age 18. You slowly find out that she is blind and has been a majority of her life. But she still can remember what som...more When I first started reading "A Patch of Blue", I didnt like it very much. But slowly it started to grow on me. The story takes place in an un-named big city in a poor district. The time is also hard to tell. It does not say for sure but there is alot of open racism so I am guessing it is in the time when blacks were hated. The main character or the narrorator is a young lady at age 18. You slowly find out that she is blind and has been a majority of her life. But she still can remember what some things look like. Her real name is Selina, but you don't find that out until later in the book. The book starts out calling her 'sleena'. Sleena lives with her mother and her mothers dad or her grandfather in a small apartment. Sleena is basically the scapegoat for everything. She lives a really crummy life. Even though she is blind she is expected to do everything such as cooking, cleaning, and anything else they beg of her to do. Her mother is a prostitute that hates Sleena. She works a dirty job cleaning bathrooms, the same as her father who cleans mens bathrooms. The grandfather who is named as Ol'pa is a tired old man that drinks all of the time. Him and Rosanne (Sleenas mother) fight alot. They hate eachother and are always bickering. On top of all the work that Sleena has to do in the apartment a man named Mr. Faber, a polish imigrant with a heavy accent, brings by boxes of beads for her to string. At the end of every day Sleena is tormented and put down by her mother. Constantly saying she isnt good enough and just dumb and blind. And also getting smacked and hit for "back talk". Being couped up in an apartment all day takes its toll as one day she finally left and was brought to the park with Mr. Faber. She sat under a tree and strung her beads. One day though she met a man named Gordon. She quickly becomes good friends with him after only meeting him a couple times at the park. After meeting many times at the park they fall in love. She has visited his apartment a couple of times and has talked with him about living a better life. That is as far as I have gotten. The entire story Selina is learning about herself and that even thought she is blind she deserves to be treated like a human and have human feelings and interactions just like every body else. (less)

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Sep 29, 2008 Andrea rated it 4 of 5 stars

Sleena is a young girl that has been blind for years. Her disability was caused by accident, her mother accidentally spilled acid into her eyes while she was trying to defend herself from Sleena’s father. She has been blind forever since.
She lives with her mother and grandfather. She doesn’t really get along with her mother because of the fact she is always blaming Sleena for her problems.
She does not have any friends and she never gets to go out of her house. She is always working around the ho...more

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Sep 30, 2008 Jake Brown rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anyone that likes sad storys with a chance for a happy ending

A Patch of Blue is a book about a blind girl named Salina whos eyes were burned by acid accidently during a fight between her mother and father. everyday is more torture for her not knowing what anything looks like other then a few colors. Red was the last color she saw as her father killed her mother's "friend". Black is the color she is forced to always have in front of her. And blue is the color of the sky which she remembers so dearly.

During the story we find that her mother is a prostitute...more

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Mar 25, 2009 Bethany rated it 2 of 5 stars

I read this book a few years ago, after already having seen the movie based on this story, about 50 times. So because I love the movie, I'm sure my opinion here is very slanted. But this is one of the rare exceptions where I prefer the movie version! The book is much more dismal and has a very different and depressing ending. The movie on the other hand, is uplifting!

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Jul 28, 2011 Kara Kilgore added it

This book is also always on my list of favorites. I imagine its probably kind of hard to get a hold of, but it is so worth it if you do. Its about a blind girl who has basically spent her entire life in a small apartment caring for her selfish mother and grandfather. Then one day she meets this kind man in the park who shows her how much more there is to life.

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Jan 14, 2013 Katie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Katie by: my mom

This is my favorite book, because my mom gave it to me as a gift when was 9 and I've read it a bunch of times. This is a book I reflect on often and will always cherish. I still have my original copy! A Patch of Blue is story about a blind girl in the 60's, who lives with her prostitute mother and alcoholic grandfather. She meets a black man in the park and falls in love with him. She is racist, due to the times and what she has been taught by her mother and grandfather. She does not know that t...more

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Sep 29, 2008 Justin B. added it Recommends it for: everybody

Recommended to Justin by: Mr. Shecter

A Patch of Blue is about a blind girl. Her name is Saliena and he sister and her dad treat her really badly. She does everything around their room even though she is blind. She strings beads and her boss Mr. Faber pays her for it. One day Mr. Faber takes her to the park. She loved the park a lot. Then she meets a man. His name is Gordon. Saliena and Gordon fall in love.

Every day Saliena talks Old Pa into taking her to the park. Gordon always comes and finds her and they talk to eachother for hou...more

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Jun 13, 2011 Bron rated it 3 of 5 stars

I read this for school in grade 8, and although it affected me a lot at the time, the only long lasting memory of it I have was when she ate a bug in her sandwich and how helpless she felt over it! I can remember that it really gave us an awakening of just how bad being blind could be.

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May 11, 2010 Stephanie Barber rated it 2 of 5 stars

Though I really did not enjoy this book I would suggest it as a book club book. The reason for this is that nobody in my book club enjoyed it so it sparked a lot of discussion about why we did not like it. We chatted for a long time about what we did not like!

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Sep 29, 2008 Alexis B rated it 5 of 5 stars

A Patch Of Blue-Elizabeth Kata

A Patch of Blue is about a blind girl. Her name is Sleena. She lives with her (Grandpa) Ole Pa and Rose-ann. Sleena is 18 years old, She has pale gold hair, and a heart shaped face. Ole Pa and Rosee-ann are alcoholics. Sleena goes to the park everyday to make beads for Mr. Faber. Sleena hates the color black.
Sleena meets a guy named Gordon at the park and he talks to her and helps her make her beads. She meets Gordon at the park under the oak tree everyday. Sleen...more

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Apr 15, 2013 Mark Glidden rated it 3 of 5 stars

Moving story about an unlikely friendship (at least for the time) between a blind white girl and a black male. Touches on the Dickensian in its style and subject, unfortunately also in it being overly sentimental in areas.

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Nov 12, 2012 Amy rated it 5 of 5 stars

A very powerful story, especially for the time in which it was published. Also, a bit less uplifting at the end than the well known film, but I highly recommend it. Love the first person viewpoint of Selina.

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May 04, 2009 Yanisha rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: ANYONE

Recommended to Yanisha by: A TEACHER OR A MENTOR

IT WAS A VERY INTERESTING BOOK. IT ALWAYS KEPT ME ON THE EDGE OF MY SEAT AND GUESSING WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT. ELIZABETH KATA DID A GREAT JOB WITH THE DESCRIPTIONS AND EMPHASING EVERY EMOTION

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Nov 17, 2012 Rose marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I've seen the film many times (and it's one of my favorites), but never have had the opportunity to read the book. I'm hoping I can remedy that at some point.

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Nov 15, 2010 Darcia Scates rated it 5 of 5 stars

Elizabeth Kata writes so clearly. Her books are wonderful. This book is a keeper, and it's out of print, so you most likely will not find it at a thrift store.

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Aug 21, 2012 Peter rated it 5 of 5 stars

i read this ages ago with my heart in my mouth and a tear in my eye. suffocating tale, a bit dated now but also ahead of it's time.
didn't realise elizabeth kata was australian, now i have to find her other books.

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Feb 15, 2012 Kressel Housman rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

I saw the movie before reading the book, so I was spoiled by the Hollywood ending. The book is much sadder, but it's still a beautiful love story.

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Oct 03, 2012 Janet B rated it 4 of 5 stars

Great Book, This is about a relation ship of a Black Man and a teenage white Blind Girl, who fell in love in a racially divided world.

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About Elizabeth Kata

Elizabeth Katayama (1912 – 4 September 1998) was an Australian writer under the pseudonym Elizabeth Kata, best known for Be Ready with Bells and Drums (1961), which was made into the award-winning film A Patch of Blue (1965).

She was born of Scottish parents in Sydney in 1912. After marrying a Japanese man named Katayama in 1937, she lived for ten years in Japan. During the last years of World War...more

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