Title: The Color Purple

Author: Alice Walker

Publisher: Harcourt Books 1982

Genre: Classics

Pages: 288

Rating:  3/5 stars

Reading Challenges: T4MC -- Published in birth year; Classics -- African American experience; Women Authors; Mount TBR; Books to Movie

How I Got It: I own it

Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Color Purple is a tale of personal empowerment which opens with a protagonist Celie who is at the bottom of America's social caste. A poor, black, ugly and uneducated female in the America's Jim Crow South in the first half of the 20th century, she is the victim of constant rape, violence and misogynistic verbal abuse. Celie cannot conceive of an escape from her present condition, and so she learns to be passive and unemotional. But The Color Purple eventually demonstrates how Celie learns to fight back and how she discovers her true sexuality and her unique voice. By the end of the novel, Celie is an empowered, financially-independent entrepreneur/landowner, one who speaks her mind and realizes the desirability of black femaleness while creating a safe space for herself and those she loves.

One of those "been on my list forever" books.  I finally picked it up even after being cautioned by many people that this book is very difficult to read.  They were right.  It was very difficult to read through Celie's struggles.  It was difficult to keep my emotions in check.  It was difficult to not hate many of the characters.  So, was it worth reading?  I have mixed feelings about this.  While I loved Walker's focus on themes and issues, I did not love the style.  I was very distracted by the style and language used (misspelling, bad word choices).  Because of all my distractions, I don't think I fully connected to the novel.  Interesting book, but it's not going to appear on any of my best of lists.

Movie:

The movie is even more difficult to get through than the book.  I had to force myself to watch until the end.  The themes are so serious, I can't say that I loved the movie.  In that way, I put this into the same category as Schindler's List.  I feel like I've added to my experiences by watching, but it's not something I would rush out and see again.  My only big critictism of the movie is it's elimination of all lesbianism.  The part of the storyline seemed extremely important to Celie's growth.