The Color Purple, Alice Walker
What’s there to say about The Color Purple? It’s so deservedly famous that it’s difficult for me to think of anything that might be interesting to say. I can understand the more negative reviews for it — the epistolary format, the colloquial language and often phonetic spelling, the unrelenting awfulness of the main character’s life. Even some of the plot twists. And of course the more conservative among us aren’t going to be pleased by the female sexuality on display, and particularly not the relationship between Shug and Celie.
And yet. It ends up being quite uplifting, because here are these people who are discovering how to stand on their own two feet, how to live, and how to be their own selves and not what their parents made, and not what society wants them to be either. It seems like there’s no one in the book immune from the possibility of self-discovery and redemption. And despite the fact that Shug has no faith in the typical version of God, and Celie loses it too, there’s something profoundly spiritual about Celie’s journey.
I’m glad I finally got round to reading this.
Rating: 5/5
I’m SO GLAD you finally read The Color Purple. It’s one of my favorite books. Period. I’ve read it at least once a year since I was 14.
It’s not super well known in the UK, at least in schools, so I never got the chance when I was a kid. And I’m probably glad about that — I don’t know that I would’ve appreciated it properly.
I just adore this book. I read it in high school and loved it, but when I read it as an adult I saw so many things that I had not seen before. I am glad to see that you made room in your reading schedule to read The Color Purple.
SDCB Steph recently posted…Ten Most Memorable Books I Read in 2015
Yeah, I’m not sure I’d have appreciated it if I’d read it when I was younger!