The Color Purple

Apr 09, 2012 Angus rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: pulitzer-prize, radcliffes-rival-100, reviewed-and-blogged, national-book-award

Original post at Book Rhapsody.

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Intro

I am the only reader in our family. I might sound a little condescending, but it really is true. I am the only person in the most recent generation of our family tree who would spend a lot on books. A few of my cousins show some interest in reading, but they do not read as voraciously as I do.

So it really is rewarding when I get my cousins to read by simply letting them check out my books. One cousin read a book I left on the dresser. Never mind that it was...more

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Mar 29, 2012 Patrizia O rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporanei, storie-di-donne

La vicenda narrata in questo libro racchiude diversi temi, ciascuno dei quali racchiude una possibile chiave di lettura. La storia della protagonista, Celie, ha luogo nel profondo sud degli Stati Uniti, in un arco temporale che, più o meno, va dalla fine del 1800 giunge sino agli anni '40.
E' però riduttivo individuare un'unica protagonista; in realtà la storia di Celie si intreccia con quella di molti altri personaggi, ciascuno dei quali svolge un ruolo essenziale nell'economia del romanzo.
Se

...more

La vicenda narrata in questo libro racchiude diversi temi, ciascuno dei quali racchiude una possibile chiave di lettura. La storia della protagonista, Celie, ha luogo nel profondo sud degli Stati Uniti, in un arco temporale che, più o meno, va dalla fine del 1800 giunge sino agli anni '40.
E' però riduttivo individuare un'unica protagonista; in realtà la storia di Celie si intreccia con quella di molti altri personaggi, ciascuno dei quali svolge un ruolo essenziale nell'economia del romanzo.
Senza dubbio è una storia di donne che, grazie al sostegno e all'aiuto di altre donne, imparano il rispetto per se stesse.

Ma guardati. Sei nera, sei povera, sei brutta e sei donna. All'inferno, ha detto, non sei niente e nessuno, tu.

Queste sono le parole con cui Mr., il marito di Celie (di cui la donna non conosce nemmeno il nome), reagisce alla decisione della moglie di lasciarlo. Ma Celie, grazie al sostegno e all'amore di Shug, l'amante di Albert (è questo il nome di Mr.), impara a camminare sulle sue gambe.

Si tratta per Celie di un lungo percorso di riscatto ed emancipazione per niente scontato: la sua vita non è mai stata facile ed impara presto che l'unico modo per sopravvivere è la sottomissione, l'assenza di ogni emozione. Riesce così a tollerare prima gli abusi del padre e poi quelli del marito. La convivenza con Sofia (l'indipendente moglie di Harpo, il maggiore dei figli di Mr.) e poi la relazione con Shug le fanno conoscere modi diversi di essere donna e le danno il coraggio di ribellarsi.
E' una storia sull'amore (tra uomo e donna o tra donna e donna poco importa ai protagonisti) che può superare le convenzioni sociali, i tradimenti e le differenze personali. L'amore crea un legame profondo tra le persone: ci si separa ma poi, in un modo o in altro, ci si ritrova.
E' naturalmente una storia sulle barriere culturali e sulla discriminazione razziale , non solo tra bianchi e neri (come è ovvio immaginare) ma anche tra i neri civilizzati degli Stati Uniti e gli africani (che non riconoscono nei primi i loro fratelli venduti schiavi da altri neri), tra i nativi americani e tutti gli altri (bianchi o neri non fa differenza).
E' soprattutto una storia sulla difficile ricerca di Dio in se stessi e in tutte le cose che ci circondano. Shug dichiara a Celie che Dio è in tutte le cose che ci circondano ed è intorno a noi che bisogna trovarlo, non certo in chiesa dove dimora un vecchio con la barba bianca, fatto a immagine e somiglianza dei bianchi. Bisogna togliersi l'uomo dagli occhi per vedere tutto il resto : le spighe di grano, il colore viola, i fiorellini di campo.

La maggior parte della gente pensa che [Dio] debba avere le sembianze di qualcosa o qualcuno – dell'albero della foglia o di Cristo – noi invece no. E, privi del problema delle sembianze di Dio, ci sentiamo più liberi.

E' una storia sul significato della vita , come dice uno dei protagonisti:

Ho cominciato a chiedermi perché abbiamo bisogno di amore. Perché soffriamo. Perché siamo neri. Perché siamo uomini e donne. Da dove vengono veramente i bambini. E non mi ci è voluto molto per accorgermi che non sapevo praticamente niente. E che chiedersi perché si è neri o uomini o donne o cespugli non serve a niente, se non ci si chiede anche perché si è su questa terra.
E cosa hai concluso, gli ho chiesto.
Che siamo qui per farci domande,almeno per quanto riguarda me.

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Mar 18, 2013 Lady Danielle aka The Book Huntress rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: african-american-experience, classic, girl-power, abused, historical-fiction, epistolary-narrative

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

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Apr 08, 2013 Rowena rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: afrocentric, american-lit, readalongs

I read The Colour Purple in my early teens, was traumatized by the graphic abuse portrayed, and vowed to never read it again. I was curious about why so many of my GR friends rated it so highly and was eventually convinced to give it another go.

Years after my first read, I still (of course) have the same visceral reaction to the abuse but that no longer blinds me from seeing the magnificence of Alice Walker’s storytelling, and how she brings her characters to life.

Celie is the protagonist of the...more

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Apr 21, 2011 Louize rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: adult readers

Since its release in 1982, The Color Purple had been a subject of frequent censorship due to its violent sexual content and language. Not to mention the casual and constant change of partners, lesbianism and the polygamous society of the Olinka tribe. Written in epistolary form, the book is a series of letters addressed to God through which our protagonist, Celie, found solace in her chaotic life. She exists in a time of male dominance and fixed gender roles.

“Well sometime Mr._____ git on me pr

...more Since its release in 1982, The Color Purple had been a subject of frequent censorship due to its violent sexual content and language. Not to mention the casual and constant change of partners, lesbianism and the polygamous society of the Olinka tribe. Written in epistolary form, the book is a series of letters addressed to God through which our protagonist, Celie, found solace in her chaotic life. She exists in a time of male dominance and fixed gender roles.

“Well sometime Mr._____ git on me pretty hard. I have to talk to Old Maker. But he my husband. I shrug my shoulders. This life soon be over, I say. Heaven last all ways.”

Celie, a barely educated black woman, was abused and impregnated twice by her supposedly father at the age of 14. She was then forced to a loveless marriage with a widower named Albert, a father of four children, who treat her like a servant and an occasional sexual convenient. She was inarticulate and has no power to assert herself or resist her abuser.

"He beat me like he beat the children. Cept he don't never hardly beat them. He say, Celie, get the belt... It all I can do not to cry. I make myself wood. I say to myself, Celie, you a tree. That's how come I know trees fear men."

As the story unfolds, the subject of feminism was gradually introduced. Although an ambiguous female relationship was present, it was Shug Avery’s self-assured but loving character that bolstered Celie to resist oppression and gain selfhood. Even the secondary characters, from which we do not hear directly, have a great influence through their open willfulness and unconventional perspective; such as Sofia, Mary Agnes and Nettie. The alliance, friendship and support these women weaved among them proved their resilience and worth.

“I’m pore, I’m black, I may be ugly and can’t cook, a voice say to everything listening. But I’m here.”

Three (3) types of oppression were visible in the story: paternalism, sexism and racism which Ms. Walker did a marvelous job of expressing through epistolary manipulations without being too emotional. It is also worth mentioning that although feminism is a strong subject here, it is not “anti-male” in the least. At the last chapters, Ms. Walker gave room for the men of the story to redeem themselves. It was justifying how Albert and Harpo are changed by the strong women around them, finally able to see their true worth beyond sex and domestic slavery.

"The world is changing, I said. It is no longer a world just for boys and men."

Despite the injustice presented in this book, indelibly the nature of God was narrated in a non-fixated way. It implied that God is for and in everyone. All it takes is a little self-searching.

“Here’s the thing, say Shug. The thing I believe. God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. And sometimes it just manifest itself even if you not looking, or don’t know what you looking for. Trouble do it for most folks, I think. Sorrow, lord. Feeling like shit”

The novel is effective because of the authenticity of the narration. Most knows that letter-type writings imply the importance of self-expression. But we have to understand that expression requires a listener and validation. It had been subtly implied in this book that God was Celie’s most attentive listener and in the end made concrete validations for her.

You saying God vain? I ast.
Naw, she say. Not vain, just wanting to share a good thing. I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don’t notice it.
What it do when it pissed off? I ast.
Oh, make something else. People think pleasing God is all God care about. But any fool living in the world can see it always trying to please us back.
Yeah? I say.
Yeah, she say. It always making little surprises and springing them on us when us least expect.

(Thanks to Jzhun, a friend and group moderator, for giving the time to discuss this book with me last meet up.)
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Jul 13, 2007 Russ rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Women, students, anyone who is not prudish

Shelves: 2007, novel

I first read this in high school, and really enjoyed it. I re-read it in 2007, and enjoyed it just as much the second time.

First thing I should mention: This is not the book for you if you object to blunt language about sexuality, and strong language in general. The themes in this one are very real, and very shocking. However, if you can get past that, the story does offer some very touching moments.

The story, in a nutshell: Celie, a poor black girl living in Georgia, overcomes poverty, sexual o...more

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Oct 11, 2007 Austin Wegner rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Color Purple Timeline

1) The book begins with the main charecter, Celie, being raped by her father as a young girl

2) Celie gives birth to her first child, but is forced to give it up. Her father intends to take the child out into the woods and kill it, but decides to sell it instead.

3) Celie's father wants Nettie (Celie's young, attractive sister) to marry Mr._____(this man is not given a name until he is later refered to as "Albert" by his previous girlfriend). Celie knows that this many is...more

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Mar 14, 2007 Meara rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics

It was a beautiful story that made you want to cry, laugh and smile along with the characters. Well put together plot line, the characters were people you could really feel for and identify with. I loved the humanness of it all, way different stories were intermingled with each other and how you felt closure at the end of it all. Read it. Everyone.

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Jun 23, 2012 Brian Robbins rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Raided from the local library, for when I driving. Had seen the film, but never read the book. The film (on second viewing - didn't like it first time - was good,) but the book outclassed this by a long way.

Alice walker, as reader of the story was excellent, as well as excellent in the role of author.

She is one of the few authors who made 'good' characters believable and attractive. Ceilie is wonderful. Loved the way the story worked out into a reconcilliation of the main characters - even Miste...more

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May 10, 2012 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: The Filipino Group 100 Favorite Books; 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die (2006-2010)

Shelves: 1001-core, race, epistolary, historical-fiction, drama, family-drama, feminist, fiction, pulitzer, political, national, saddest, tfg-100, violence, tragicomic, with-movie

Walker's characterization is one of the best I've encountered so far in my reading. There are many memorable characters in this book, The Color Purple that I will probably remember for a long time. Walker's characters are not caricatures as they are well-developed and multi-dimensional, i.e., not only with both their good and bad sides revealed to the readers but also the reasons why they behave or think that way. Even the secondary characters like Squeak or Mary Agnes contributes in bringing ou...more Walker's characterization is one of the best I've encountered so far in my reading. There are many memorable characters in this book, The Color Purple that I will probably remember for a long time. Walker's characters are not caricatures as they are well-developed and multi-dimensional, i.e., not only with both their good and bad sides revealed to the readers but also the reasons why they behave or think that way. Even the secondary characters like Squeak or Mary Agnes contributes in bringing out the nature of the many main characters such as: Celie, Albert, Sophia, Shug Avery and Harpo.

There are many themes that Walker tackled in this book: slavery, education and literacy, violence, religious belief and colonialism. [For this reason, this is a very good book of group discussion.] Although, in my opinion, they are too many and too complex for a 295-page book composed of 90 short letters. This attempt left most of the complexities untouched and the insights inexact or half-baked. For example, Shug telling Celie that "God is in the trees" and "It is okay to enjoy the things that God created including sex" (even without the mentioning anything about marriage or love) can be misleading to readers especially the young and the uninformed. However, the effort was there and I still enjoyed having all those theme presented to me while reading. When I finally closed the book, I did not feel unsatisfied really but you know that feeling when you are standing in front of the buffet table and you still have that small space in your tummy and you don't want to go for dessert because it is fattening? You have tasted all the courses but you want to go for a second small serving and you don't know which one to take? I had that feeling this morning while constructing this review in my mind.

The other small complaint that I felt this morning when I finished the book was that the beginning was dramatic and totally engaging. The middle part was full of twists, revelations and endeavors. But the ending was something that felt contrived and unrealistic in my taste. How could it be that happy after all what the characters have gone through? It all became a bit of an escapist book for me instead of what I thought it to be as deep and literary. Not that I wanted to dampen the mood of the readers or not to picture hope in the gloom of Georgia during that sad phase in American history but hey, if life is fair then we should have been beaming, smiling and even giggling everyday, right? However, this is not Walker's fault and I know that this won the Pulitzer and National Book Award on the same year and being the first black woman recipient of those, Walker made history but still, I prefer my favorite novels to be realistic and sincere. I don't care if I end up sad and neurotic for few days after reading a book as long as it is breathtakingly beautifully written.

Sad na kung sad.

Thanks to Christine, Blue and Po for being my reading buddies for this book.

Thanks also goes to Angus and Jzhunagev for the encouragement to pick and read this.

Thank you, God, for not sending me to earth as a black man during the early 20th century in Georgia. I would not surely know how to behave as a black man if I got married to somebody like Sophia. :)

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Apr 07, 2009 Visha Burkart rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Here's a book I want to recommend to the best women in my life. Don't be put off if you've already seen the film - about halfway through the book, it becomes another animal entirely. As a child, I watched the film a number of times and really enjoyed it, but after reading the book, I'm somewhat appalled that its message was so watered down.

The book is an epistolary novel (a form composed of "letters" rather than the traditional chapter structure) - unusual in this day and age, but something tha...more Here's a book I want to recommend to the best women in my life. Don't be put off if you've already seen the film - about halfway through the book, it becomes another animal entirely. As a child, I watched the film a number of times and really enjoyed it, but after reading the book, I'm somewhat appalled that its message was so watered down.

The book is an epistolary novel (a form composed of "letters" rather than the traditional chapter structure) - unusual in this day and age, but something that was all the rage in 18th century Europe. I appreciated the brevity of each "chapter/letter" as well as the use of the vernacular, which is also rarely used these days. I felt as though I was hearing the character of Celie as clearly as if she was talking to me. The unfair treatment she received at the hands of men was brutal and frustrating as she would simply carry on, until she met Shug Avery and through the discovery of love, she is encouraged to turn her fate around (and not in a quick, brutal fashion, as she originally wants).

The lesbian relationships in the book surprised me a bit at first - but there is nothing lascivious in their execution, nor did Walker make me feel like a voyeur. In other words, instead of writing sex scenes to "get readers off", Walker's way of writing them was more of a reflection of a movement: a physical movement, a peace movement, a women's liberation movement. I was less interested in the middle part of the book, when Nettie's letters begin describing the Olinka tribe of Africa and we are "away" from Celie, although she is the one reading them. But that part of the book has merit as well - describing the patronization felt by Africans by their African-American descendants "coming to their rescue" and the way the two religious cultures coerce and clash with each other.

The one part of the book that I definitely wasn't sold on was the very end. I simply didn't believe that Nettie had survived - what happened with the sinking ship - was she simply not on it? I almost felt as though Walker tied things up in a bow at the end, having everyone together for a reunion and then Nettie and her family finally showing up... although while reading it, I got choked up with emotion.

No matter. It's still one of the better books I've read in a while: A complex social commentary rendered with superficial simplicity, refreshingly presented through an original format. Read it!(less)

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Feb 09, 2013 kisha rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: classics, african-american-fiction, southern-fiction-or-historical-fic, favorites, books-that-are-movies, chick-lit, rereads

"They are the blackest people I have ever seen, Celie. They are black like the people we are talking about when we say, "So and so is black than black, he’s blueblack." They are so black, Celie, they shine. Which is something else folks down home like to say about real black folks. But Celie, try to imagine a city full of these shining, blueblack people wearing brilliant blue robes with designs like fancy quilt patterns. Tall, thin, with long necks and straight backs. Can you picture it at all,...more

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Feb 01, 2011 Fiona rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: female-writers-fiction, feminist-reads, modern-classics, feminist-readers-discussion-group, american-literature, africa, lgbtq

As many of my companions know I have recently re-read 'The Color Purple' because it was voted as the November group-read by participants of the "Feminist Readers' Discussion Group" which I facilitate. I have so very many thoughts and ideas rattling around in my mind on how to structure our gathering next month that I can barely begin to write this review.

I'll keep it brief...

Quite unsurprisingly, I once again experienced 'The Color Purple' to be a harrowing yet compelling and inspirational read....more

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Feb 06, 2008 Christy rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: african-american-lit-and-history, readinglist1, books-for-teaching, 20th-century-american-lit, favorites, abuse-and-trauma

This is one of my new favorite books.

The Color Purple tells the story of Celie, a black woman who finds herself in one abusive situation after another. Her stepfather molests her, her husband beats her, and she is worn down by bearing and caring for children. Over the course of the book, however, Celie learns to stand up for herself and, more importantly, learns to love. Celie's personal development is prompted by her relationship with Shug Avery, a singer and her husband's former lover, who com...more This is one of my new favorite books.

The Color Purple tells the story of Celie, a black woman who finds herself in one abusive situation after another. Her stepfather molests her, her husband beats her, and she is worn down by bearing and caring for children. Over the course of the book, however, Celie learns to stand up for herself and, more importantly, learns to love. Celie's personal development is prompted by her relationship with Shug Avery, a singer and her husband's former lover, who comes to live with them for a while during an illness. Their relationship shifts dramatically, from competitors for Celie's husband to friends, then lovers, and finally family. As Shug says, "Us each other's peoples now" (189). Her personal development is helped along even further through her correspondence with her sister Nettie, who is working as a missionary in Africa with Celie's children that she was forced to give away. Through Shug, Celie learns about love, physical pleasure and desire, and the possibilities of creative outlets; through Nettie, Celie learns about the larger world and begins to see that her life is only one of many possibilities. She learns that her life could be different and through that gradual realization, she makes her life different.

Some of this may sound corny, but it really, truly works in this novel. Walker is able to provide a vision of redeeming love that isn't simplistic or even easy for the characters involved. Celie's growth comes with pain, as does the growth of her formerly abusive husband into a real human being who is able to love both Celie and Shug and his children in a way that he could not before.

What is most meaningful or moving for me in this book, though, is the vision of God and faith that Walker provides. At one point in the book, Celie announces that she no longer believes in God. She tells Shug, "the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgitful and lowdown" (199). Shug responds by telling her about her form of God. She says, "God is inside you and inside everybody else. You come into the world with God. But only them that search for it inside find it. . . . God ain't a he or a she, but a It" (202). Furthermore, she describes her experience of God by saying, "one day when I was sitting quiet and feeling like a motherless child, which I was, it come to me: that feeling of being part of everything, not separate at all. I knew that if I cut a tree, my arm would bleed. . . . It sort of like you know what, she say, grinning and rubbing high up on my thigh" (203). For Shug, God is love, joy, pleasure, beauty. God wants admiration and wants us to enjoy the things it has created. "I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it" (203). This kind of pantheistic version of God in nature and in our experiences is one that resonates with me and one that provides plenty of opportunities to use religion in positive, life-affirming ways (as opposed to the sometimes frightening ways in which traditional religion--with its white male God and its proscriptions against sex and other forms of pleasure--can be used). This version of God is not distant and judgmental; it is internal and pleasurable, creative. Shug illustrates one way in which this God can be useful: "Whenever you trying to pray, and man plop himself on the other end of it, tell him to git lost, say Shug. Conjure up flowers, wind, water, a big rock. But this hard work, let me tell you. He been there so long, he don't want to budge. He threaten lightening, floods and earthquakes. Us fight. I hardly pray at all. Every time I conjure up a rock, I throw it" (204). In this way, prayer and God become part of a larger struggle for self-determination and the ability for women like Celie to fight back and claim their own lives back from those who would abuse them or take advantage of them.

Some people object to The Color Purple on the grounds of its pantheism or its lesbianism or its frank sexuality or its violence and abuse or its representation of men. Some people see Celie's attitude toward men (she is totally uninterested at best, with the exception of the friendship that finally develops between her and her husband--and that bonding occurs over how much they both love Shug) as a condemnation of men in general. But Walker's real concern here is love--love for oneself, love for others, and love received from others. As Celie's husband says while they sit and talk and sew together, "When it comes to what folks do together with they bodies . . . anybody's guess is as good as mine. But when you talk about love I don't have to guess. I have love and I have been love. And I thank God he let me gain understanding enough to know love can't be halted just cause some peoples moan and groan" (276-7).(less)

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Nov 21, 2012 Haleema rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: thats-not-writing, books-morphed-into-movies, shouldn-t-be-classics, what-the-falafel

So why would I enjoy a book that starts with a rape scene?

I don't know if this makes me evil but I was not a bit affected by this novel. Yes, it was sad, deep and profound but it was nothing new. I was aware of sexual, verbal and physical abuse far before I read this book. As for the writing itself, I could barely keep myself awake. I understand that the narrator was uneducated and could barely spell words. However, it was still a headache for me to read it. Anyway, I liked the book though. It h...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Cora Stryker rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-realism

I think I was too young, or too untravelled, or too unbroken-hearted to fully appreciate this book when I first read it. (Though I did notice a few typos this time that would never have happened in the age of "search and replace.") This book is epic and intimate at the same time. Finishing it the night after our first black President won reelection was another added pleasure, but mostly I love how the book moves in unexpected and graceful ways that are commensurate with the topography of our liv...more

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Sep 29, 2010 Christian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The color purple was really hard to understand but i worked hard .What the color purple was mainly about was celie learnig how to stand up for herself.her sister will always try to make her do it but it did not work.She let The Man beat on her and she did not know how to defend herself.When this lady got sick she came to live with celie an dcelie husband,and celie and the lady became very close and talked about a lot of things i think celie was in love with her.Well the lady was really nasty and...more

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May 24, 2013 Becky rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Not an easy pill to swallow, but really powerful once you get over the initial shock of the narrator's frank descriptions of abuse and the troubled relationships between black men and women. This is an epistolary (love that word) novel, and it works really well since it gives the reader a direct connection with the main character, Celie, a poor, uneducated black woman in early 20th century Georgia. I found her narrative voice to be really authentic, both the dialect itself and the perspective on...more

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May 13, 2013 Midnight rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult, read-in-high-school, school-made-me-do-it, classic, 4-stars, forced-upon-me, reviewed

I'm surprised by how much I liked this book. Normally I hate books that I'm forced to read for school. It was just something about this book that clicked with me and sent me soaring off into Celie's world. What normally draws me to a book is either the magical world or the fact that there are quite a bit of hot sex scenes (though I'm very rarely in the mood for these kind of books). The Color Purple has neither of these and yet I still was using all my willpower to not read ahead. It is about Ce...more I'm surprised by how much I liked this book. Normally I hate books that I'm forced to read for school. It was just something about this book that clicked with me and sent me soaring off into Celie's world. What normally draws me to a book is either the magical world or the fact that there are quite a bit of hot sex scenes (though I'm very rarely in the mood for these kind of books). The Color Purple has neither of these and yet I still was using all my willpower to not read ahead. It is about Celie a black woman who's live is hell and we follow her around and live her life with her.

The book is written in a journal type style and the fact the Celie never goes to school past the point of like 4th or 5th grade. She can't spell to save herself (but neither can so who am I to judge?) and her grammar sucked (enough so that I a person who still has trouble figuring out what a verb actually is can see them like they have neon signs on them). And while it would have made my mother foam at the mouth like a rabid wolf if she had read the book, it didn't bother me. I had very little trouble understanding what Celie wrote. Most of what I didn't understand was the time periods pop culture (do you call it that when we go so far back? hgmmm Oh well). As the book progresses Celie gets better at spelling and grammar. She still by the end of the book is spelling get, git. I felt sympathy and pity for her. I just wanted to take her up in my arms and tell her everything is going to be alright.

Mr. for me was the most compelling of all the characters. I went from hating the man with the burning passion of a thousand suns to understanding him, to almost liking him. I can never fully like him for what he did to Celie but I understand why he did what he did. I'm not saying I would ever do what he did, or even that it was right but I did understand.

Her "Pa" on the other hand was a evil bastard who I was glad to see die. He had NO redeeming qualities and was glad he was only in a small part of the book.

Sophia is a character that I think progressed backward. What I mean by this is that she is a perfectly solid character to going raving mad. I think she goes crazy after going to jail. Something snapped in her brain and was never quite fix up when she got out. I felt just about as sorry for her as I did Celie.

The timeline though was a little confusing. It says on the Goodreads summary that if follows Celie for 20 years of her life and started out a 14 she was only 34 when the book ended. but she was also she was telling us how old the (grown) children must think she and her same age peers where???? I'm so confused someone help!

So overall I really liked the story. The fact that it was character driven didn't bother me. If there had been a sequel I most likely would have picked it up, on my own which never happens with school books except for The Outsiders which I now own the movie, just to see where Celie and the gang ended up. BUT a word of caution. This book is not for people who find rape scenes unreadable (nothing wrong with that), Abusive people, people going slightly crazy, and people who are living in their own personal hell or for grammar nazis who will probably eat the book because it is burning their eyes out.

Oh and this entire review in my head is narrated by Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. I have been listening to his reviews for the past three days when I should have been asleep, doing chores, making sure my brother and sister doesn't burn down the house, eating... I think I need help.(less)

1 like · like · see review

Dec 27, 2011 Christina (Reading Thru The Night) rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, ah-may-zing, literary-keepsakes, historical, sobs

Wow. I mean. Really. Wow.

You know how there are some books and their words wrap around you like a comforting blanket? Well...

This. Is. Not. One.

The Color Purple rips the clothes right off of your skin, leaving you bare and vulnerable. From the first freakin' moment opening the page. You are just THERE and you can't be anywhere else but THERE. Even when you're not.

Wow.

Have you seen the movie? I had. I thought I was prepared. Because the movie was devastating. I remember vividly being in the house...more

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Jun 05, 2011 Dominic rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classic-literature, modern-literature, feminism, pulitzer-prize

When talking about the power of books, I often mention something I call "the human spirit." However I would define it if I could, I believe The Color Purple comes closer than any other book to embodying, for me, this wonderful enigma. Walker's story, even after what is probably a dozen readings, continues to come to life like no other book. It pulses with the stuff of real human possibility and both the magic and wonder of the human experience. It literally moves me to tears every time I read it...more When talking about the power of books, I often mention something I call "the human spirit." However I would define it if I could, I believe The Color Purple comes closer than any other book to embodying, for me, this wonderful enigma. Walker's story, even after what is probably a dozen readings, continues to come to life like no other book. It pulses with the stuff of real human possibility and both the magic and wonder of the human experience. It literally moves me to tears every time I read it, at its moments of joy and reunion, of transformation and second chances, of harmony discovered. And despite its fairy tale touches, The Color Purple leaves me feeling like I've experienced someone's actual life. At the end of each reading, I feel larger--not with ego or pride, but larger with life, larger with possibility, larger with hope.

The epistolary approach is flawless. The narrative structure is classic in its approach and highly effective, and the two starkly different voices midway through the novel compliment one another. The characters, who are like real people to Walker (or so she has said in interviews), are some of the most memorable I've experienced. Returning to them every other year or so, again and again, is like reuniting with old friends.

I first read The Color Purple in a crucial summer of my youth, at 17 years old. I still remember sneaking the book into the back drive-up window of the McDonald's where I worked, stealing moments in between orders to read the book, as Celie surely did with Nettie's letters. While the world of Celie and Shug and Sofia was unlike any I'd seen before, I believe what was most special about that reading was how much I could relate to the characters' aspirations. I think I owe Walker and no one else for teaching me that summer about the universality of the human spirit. I would later read Maya Angelou, who wrote, "We are more like than we are different," but it was Alice Walker who already taught me this lesson, and it is one of the crucial moments of my life that made me into the man I am today.

I find it kind of ridiculous that so many readers have been turned off by the character transformations at the end of the book, which, to many, are gross and extreme, particularly those of the male characters. Albert and Harpo, for example, both change their ways in the end and become startlingly gentle men. The women, likewise, get their happy endings, without pain or worry. Not only do I see these transformations as a key theme in the novel, but I also find these transformations to be incredibly nice. Through a happy resolution, Walker reminds us that we are never "stuck," never so penned up in the prisons of gender and race and identity we make. There is always a chance to unlearn our bad habits and rewire the way we've been taught, in order to become healthier, happier human beings. And these changes, these ultimate metamorphoses are reasons to celebrate! And so it is only fitting that this book about emotional, spiritual and mental health ends with celebration. (And the thought of Albert, once so cruel and unfeeling, now listening to shells on his porch as an old man makes me really happy.)

There is no book more special to me than this one. Reading it still stands as one of the most important moments of my life, and Alice Walker remains, to me, a gift of compassion, justice, poetry and joy. The Color Purple is a revelation--over and over.(less)

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Dec 30, 2009 Catherine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: library, own, more-than-once

(Notes made following the discussion at Earlsdon library Avid readers' group.)

The readers who gathered in July agreed that this novel, which many of us were reading for at least the second time, has a huge number of themes and an incredible depth of characterization for such a slim volume. One compared it to a haiku, saying it deals with enormous issues by examining something narrow and apparently bounded – in this case the life of a woman who is seldom exposed to money and never travels far fro...more (Notes made following the discussion at Earlsdon library Avid readers' group.)

The readers who gathered in July agreed that this novel, which many of us were reading for at least the second time, has a huge number of themes and an incredible depth of characterization for such a slim volume. One compared it to a haiku, saying it deals with enormous issues by examining something narrow and apparently bounded – in this case the life of a woman who is seldom exposed to money and never travels far from her childhood home. We felt that, through the story of Celie, The Colour Purple explores family, religion, sexuality, violence and the exploitation of Africa in ways that transcend the context and ensure it continues to make an impact and provide new insights on re-reading.

We were fortunate in having people who were able to place the book in context for us by describing Alice Walker's history of activism in the civil rights movement, her description of herself as a 'womanist' rather than a 'feminist', and the controversy generated by the book on its initial publication because of its supposed negative stereotyping of black men. However we thought that it was also possible to empathise with the men in the book: they too are constrained by their circumstances, for example continuing the cycle of abuse that we see also in our society today; and they too grow and change throughout the novel, although there were some changes of heart that one or two felt were not so well supported.

The author achieves all of this without huge blocks of description as the book takes the form of letters full of event. These are written more in hope than with the expectation that they will be read and so are perhaps more of a journal, but the epistolary format allows the distinctive voices of Celie and her sister Nettie, and their growth, to show clearly. Even the minor characters, such as Harpo and Squeak, are brought vividly to life through Celie's stories and we see the effect they, as well as Mr _, Albert and Shug, have on her thinking. There was some discussion of the extent to which Celie's writing style could have changed over the years of the novel ,and how many of the more philosophical passages were likely to reflect her thoughts rather than being an authorial 'bolt on'.

One such passage, describing her discussion with Shug about God, is perhaps the centre of the story, for it is here that Celie switches from writing letters to God to writing letters to Nettie. Another contains a sentence which sums up her resilience, hopefulness and quiet wisdom: speaking of Shug, she says, “If she comes back I'll be happy. If not, I'll be content.” In spite of the unsophisticated vocabulary and expression, Celie's voice is, most of us agreed, always authentic.

Although much of the novel deals with the double discrimination suffered by Celie, Nettie's experiences in Africa provide a counterpoint. The life of this sister is in some ways more privileged, but there are still tensions. Nettie's relationship with the children is reflected in the experiences of the missionary family and the Olinka among which they live, and also parallels the changing relationship between black people and America on both continents.

On re-reading this summary of our discussion, I realise that it makes The Colour Purple sound terribly worthy (which it may be) and rather dull (which it certainly isn't). Even in the first letter, while describing her appalling circumstances, Celie displays a calm confidence that she can survive: there is none of the self-pity of a misery memoir. The vivacious Shug helps her to to use this strength to develop a greater independence of thought, spirit and action, and it is easy to see why Celie and Albert love her in spite of her regular departures. While some believed that the message throughout seemed to be that one should stand up for oneself and what one believes in, we all agreed that it is a novel full of hope and optimism and wholeheartedly support the author who, in a brief afterword, says , 'I thank everyone in this book for coming.' (less)

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Dec 31, 2008 Andrew rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is a deeply religious book, in a couple of different senses. First of all, the main character, Celie, narrates the book through letters she writes to God. She is trapped in abusive relationships, first with Pa and then with her husband Albert, referred to by her as Mr ______. She writes to God because she has nobody else to talk to after her sister Nettie disappears, believed dead. Gradually, through her relationship with Shug Avery and piecing together the truth about her past, she rids he...more This is a deeply religious book, in a couple of different senses. First of all, the main character, Celie, narrates the book through letters she writes to God. She is trapped in abusive relationships, first with Pa and then with her husband Albert, referred to by her as Mr ______. She writes to God because she has nobody else to talk to after her sister Nettie disappears, believed dead. Gradually, through her relationship with Shug Avery and piecing together the truth about her past, she rids herself of the traditional view of God as an old white man and comes to view God as a more creative, loving, playful entity, symbolised by the colour purple, put in a field just for the fun of it. Celie finds her sexuality, her ability to stand up for herself, begins to make a living doing something she loves and starts to like life.

It's religious in another sense because Alice Walker has tapped into something deep and rich in creating this book. She starts by dedicating it to "The Spirit, without whose assistance neither this book nor I would have been written" and ends it by writing "I thank everyone in this book for coming. A.W., author and medium." This sets up quite an expectation, but the book delivers. The style is not literary - it can't be, because it's narrated mostly by Celie, who is uneducated and admits herself she can't write well. But still there is a beauty in its simplicity. Normally any kind of dialect begins to irritate me after a while, but this doesn't. It is powerful. The horrific events at the beginning of the book, particularly, when 14-year-old Celie is raped by her father and has two children by him, then sacrifices herself to save her younger sister Nettie from the same fate, are incredibly powerful, and the power is heightened by the simple, childish language.

It's also a political book, in the best sense. It evokes the injustices of the Jim Crow South and of colonial Africa beautifully, and they always feel like part of the story, not like a political sermon. It works well because character always comes first. Everybody in the book has a character - there are no purely symbolic characters or representatives of political positions. They're all introduced and drawn carefully so that I believed they were real and cared about them. And while the book speaks some harsh truths about men, and white men in particular, nobody is a stereotype of evil - most of the characters have some redeeming features, and the "good" characters have flaws too.

There are also lots of lovely little insights, like this from Mr ______ towards the end: "Anyhow, he say, you know how it is. You ast yourself one question, it lead to fifteen. I start to wonder why us need love. Why us suffer. Why us black. Why us men and women. Where do children really come from. It didn't take long to realize I didn't hardly know nothing. And that if you ast yourself why you black or a woman or a bush it don't mean nothing if you don't ast why you here, period.
So what you think? I ast.
I think us here to wonder, myself. To wonder. To ast. And that in wondering bout the big things and asting bout the big things, you learn about the little ones, almost by accident. But you never know nothing more about the big things than you start out with. The more I wonder, he say, the more I love.
And people start to love you back, I bet, I say.
They do, he say, surprise."(less)

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Mar 05, 2008 Jennifer P. added it · review of another edition

Plot Summary:
Celie, the book’s narrator, is a young black teenager who is writing letters to God. Her father, Alphonso, abuses her, rapes her and fathers her two children.
A man who is referred to as Mr. ________ tries to marry Nettie, Celie’s younger, more attractive sister. Her father rejects this but suggests that he marry Celie, an offer that Mr. _______ accepts. Soon after she moves in with Mr. _____ and his family, she learns that he has a lover named Shug Avery. Celie is intrigued by Shug...more Plot Summary:
Celie, the book’s narrator, is a young black teenager who is writing letters to God. Her father, Alphonso, abuses her, rapes her and fathers her two children.
A man who is referred to as Mr. ________ tries to marry Nettie, Celie’s younger, more attractive sister. Her father rejects this but suggests that he marry Celie, an offer that Mr. _______ accepts. Soon after she moves in with Mr. _____ and his family, she learns that he has a lover named Shug Avery. Celie is intrigued by Shug’s picture and wonders what she is like.
Nettie runs away from her father to Celie’s new home, but is driven away by Mr. _______’s inappropriate advances towards her. Celie does not hear from her sister, after she ran away yet again, and assumes she is dead.
Her husband’s son, Harpo, falls in love with a girl named Sophia who becomes pregnant. They marry and move in next door to Celie and Mr. ______. Sophia and Celie become great friends. Celie admires Sophia, who is much stronger than her husband and will beat him if he tries to abuse her.
Shug Avery comes to town to sing in a local club but Celie is not allowed to visit her. One night Mr. ________ brings home Shug, who is seriously ill. Initially Shug is rude to Celie but they become good friends. When Shug learns that Mr. _______ beats Celie, she decides to stay with them. Celie and Shug develop romantic feelings for each other and become intimate.
After being away, Shug returned with a new husband, Gary, which does not stop her from having sexual relationship with Celie. One night Shug asked Celie about Nettie and told her that she had seen Mr. ______ secretly hide letters . They find the letters and learn that Nettie had become good friends with a missionary couple, Samuel and Corrine, and went with them to Africa on a mission trip. The couple adopted children that resembled Nettie. Samuel told Nettie how they adopted the children and she learned that the children were Celie’s and Alphonso was only their step-father. Corrine became deathly ill and eventually died. Soon after her death Nettie and Samuel married.
After a huge fight Celie tells Mr.______ that she and Shug are moving to Tennessee, where she became a tialor. Towards the end of the novel, Celie returns home to Georgia and discovered that Alphonso is dead and that she now owns his house. She reconnects with Mr.____ and they learn to enjoy spending time with each other. Celie was reunited with Nettie who brought Samuel to America with her.

Quotes
"Well how you spect to make her mind? Wives is like children. You have to let 'em know who got the upper hand. Nothing can do that better than a good sound beating."
“Yeah, I say, and he give me a lynched daddy, a crazy mama, a lowdown dog of a step pa and a sister I probably won't ever see again. Anyhow, I say, the God I been praying and writing to is a man. And act just like all the other mens I know. Trifling, forgetful and lowdown."

“I think it pisses God off if you walk by the color purple in a field somewhere and don't notice it.”

“Tell the truth, have you ever found God in a church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I evr felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God.”

My Review
This book was disturbing yet inspiring. Celie, the main character, is abused, raped and impregnated by her father. She endures countless hardships yet does not lose faith. The author used language that an uneducated, innocent, fourteen year old African Americain girl would use. For example, when she got pregnant she said that she got 'big'. Celie did not have hatred for those around her who had done her wrong. In the end of the story she becomes friendly with Mr.____, who had beaten her and stolen her letters. (less)

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May 06, 2008 Felicia Longino rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: people who like to read books that arent so good.

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

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Aug 12, 2007 Sondang rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: myfavouriteofalltimes

If I'm in love with Maeve Binchy slowly but sure, I'm in love with Alice Walker in a rush. She's great at telling the story. This is my first encounter with her writing, and it make me intend to collect all her works, just like I do with Maeve Binchy. (well, a start for hunting good books, I always love this part!).
The book is so 'black'. The story is so compelling. You'll love the way its character describe every other character.
I know this book is kind of difficult to read for most of Indonesi...more

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Jun 20, 2007 Anne rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone who wants to read a truly human and uplifting story

I picked this book up on a whim at my aunt's house (I'm currently on vacation with not enough reading material). I wasn't skeptical, per se, but I wasn't really interested, because I was expecting it to be like Beloved, which was a lot of work. But The Color Purple is an epistolary novel (ahh, freshman year English) from the point of view of an uneducated woman, Celie, who has been told her whole life that she is stupid and ugly. There is external action (the most interesting involving Celie's s...more

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Jun 16, 2008 Emily rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: literature-classics

I have to give it five stars. I don't know how you can't, but it's a very disturbing and yet so penetrating image of love. Is there a person off-limits to love? Does your suffering justify where you find love? What is the difference between a man's love and woman's love? Is one better than the other? Is happiness only found in loving someone? And the greatest question, what does God say about it all, if He is even there? Is He made happy by what makes us happy, or is it something bigger than tha...more

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Aug 28, 2009 Anna rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: novels

(Originally published here: http://www.nbafictionblog.org/nba-win...)

I picked up my copy of Alice Walker's The Color Purple to jog my memory of it for this review. I found myself swallowing it whole, reading it cover to cover in one day, and not merely remembering why I liked the book, but loving it once again.

Walker accomplishes a rare thing: She makes an epistolary novel work without veering into preciousness. Rather, Celie's full-bodied voice emerges, a moody and honest voice, in an inherentl...more (Originally published here: http://www.nbafictionblog.org/nba-win...)

I picked up my copy of Alice Walker's The Color Purple to jog my memory of it for this review. I found myself swallowing it whole, reading it cover to cover in one day, and not merely remembering why I liked the book, but loving it once again.

Walker accomplishes a rare thing: She makes an epistolary novel work without veering into preciousness. Rather, Celie's full-bodied voice emerges, a moody and honest voice, in an inherently intimate literary form. While she is the protagonist of the novel, she is not the protagonist of her world -- and so, she writes letters to God that no one is expected to read. Celie's letters are written in broken dialect, resulting in surprising juxtapositions and lyricism. As she evolves over the forty years that the novel takes place, so do her letters evolve in nuanced observation and authority. Reading the novel, you don't merely watch Celie change; you feel it in the beat and rhythm of her words.

Celie's letters carry the tale of isolation and love, of violence and sexuality, of poverty and ambition, of domination and independence, of self-awareness and community, of the chafing relationships between black men and black women, and of an inward spirituality that's not easily contained.

While centered on Celie's life in a small Georgia town, and later in Memphis, the scope of the book widens with the strange and hilarious characters who people the pages. From the proud singer Shug Avery to Sofia, whose bluntness in punished, to Harpo, who eats constantly so he can be sure to be bigger than his wife, The Color Purple is a strong contender for offering the best secondary cast of characters in twentieth-century literature. As well, the novel takes a global turn in the second half of the book through the letters and life of Nettie, Celie's sister, in Africa. Such vividness and variety of characters eases the burn of what might have been a claustrophobic earnestness in the novel.

The Color Purple--winner of both a National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize--remains a frequent target of censors still today, nearly thirty years after its publication. The intimate location of the reader in the scenes of violence and sexuality have troubled many. But it is through the uneasiness -- and the lure of Celie's voice and the surrounding cast -- that we are disarmed.

The Color Purple is about the search for joy. Reading my copy of it again, I found joy myself.(less)

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Mar 02, 2012 Katsumi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: feminism, lesbian-gay-transgender-literature

The Color Purple is an excellent reading experience, and an interesting view of life. We see life through the eyes of Celie, who goes through a series of tragic ordeals as she grows into an young woman. Celie, as a black woman experiences being inferior to men, and to all white people. It is not until Celie grows through life, gaining experience that she learns about who she is and how to be content. Life is not about 'suviving', it is about living. However moving and successful this novel is, t...more

1 like · like · see review

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