The Color Purple

Celie’s life has been an adventure – the loss of her parents early in life, two pregnancies as a teen, her children taken away, an arranged marriage to someone she doesn’t love, estrangement from her sister, and failed romance.  Celie is yearning for someone to care for her the way she’s cared for those in her life, and the way she sees them care for others, but that just doesn’t come true.  After years of strife and finally finding contentment on her own, the people she yearned for come back to her.

Alice Walker has written a beautiful, poignant story in The Color Purple.  Set in Georgia in the early 1900’s, the story reflects the economic and racial hardships common in many African American communities of the time.  However, it also reflects the culture and entrepreneurship so frequently found in these communities as well.

I give The Color Purple 4 out of 5 stars.  Written as a series of letters between Celie and both God and her sister Nettie, the reader can often feel as though they are stealing glimpses of a woman’s diary.  It is a very intimate look at Celie’s life, including the negative aspects of sexual assault, violence, and adultery. I did find the novel hard to follow at times, generally because the narrative is written in the vernacular, which can be difficult for me to process.

I recommend The Color Purple for readers looking to see a true picture of life in the South for African-Americans in the early 1900s.  This novel would also make a great book club pick – I can see great discussions happening around the different perspectives of Celie and Nettie.  Given the storylines around sexual encounters and violence, this novel is best directed towards mature audiences over 13.

When I first heard about The Color Purple, it was as a movie starring Danny Glover, Whoopie Goldberg, and Oprah Winfrey.  I’ve never actually seen that movie – it came out when I was very young, and, for some reason, I’ve always been afraid to watch it.  The book has been both critically acclaimed and commonly banned by various organizations.  Walker was awarded 1983 Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award, both for Fiction.  The book has also been named to the PBS Great American Read Top 100 and the BBC New 100 Most Influential.  Conversely, it has also been on the American Library Association’s top 100 banned or challenged books multiple times.

I chose to read this book for two separate prompts this month: The Friends & Fiction Book Club challenge “written by a person of color” and The Booklist Queen challenge “written in your birth year”.  This is the first book I have read by Alice Walker, but I doubt it will be my last.  I did find it odd to read such a widely known novel written the year I was born – I think of this book as a classic, not something released just 4 decades ago.  Yet again, my reading challenges pushed me outside my comfort zone and brought me to a book I would not have otherwise read!

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What I’m Reading

• Current print book: Abe, David S Reynolds
• Current audio book: The Seamstress of New Orleans, Diane C McPhail
• Book I’m most looking forward to: Jackie & Maria, Gill Paul