The Color Purple by Alice Walker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

To be honest, I'm still chewing this book in my head. The Color Purple is the kind of book you need to chew before you can say anything about it. It's heart breaking, emotionally wrenching and at the same time, it teaches you to never give up hoping. One might call it the story of Celie but it isn't hers without being that of Nettie, Sofia, Shug Avery, Mary Agnes and Tashi. In a small, subtle way, here's a complete book about racism, rape, homosexuality, apartheid, colonialism and economic exploitation, carefully mingled with human emotions of love, passion, pent up rage, angst, pain and a quest for self.

If I have to use one word to describe this book, it has to be 'fierce' because whether it addresses issues of feminine liberty or identity, or global issues of poverty and social inequality, whether it talks about being misfits as immigrants or misfits among natives, this little epistolary novel is as fierce as any book can be without sounding like a propaganda of some sort or without being completely depressing or appallingly boring.
While reading it, I was essentially in the book and could hear Celie's broken, defeated voice gaining weight as time passed, hear the tinkle in Shug's laughter and sense the hope in Nettie's words.

It isn't a book you're likely to forget or get out of your head. Call it the flawless imagery or the powerful characterisation, here's a book so fierce it is driven inside your skin before you realise.

View all my reviews