The Color Purple question

i found Nettie's letters quite boring at times

No but I read it so long ago. It can be difficult subject matter especially for a younger audience.

This is one instance where I found the movie more enjoyable than the book. Yeh, I could see the feeling the author was trying to encompass but the story dragged a little for me.

@Laureen - I loved what Speilberg did for the story. His film was truly brilliant and he deserved that Oscar... which I think he won but I forget to be honest.
But I loved this book so much and through what Walker did with the language to be so compelling I couldn't put it down. My mother had read it, and then gave it to me, and granted I was only in junior high, but I thought it was the greatest book ever. I have to admit that Speilberg sort of took the narrative author away from Netty and gave it to the camera, but then I guess, he's a director so that would be his intent. I just really loved the book.
Have any of you read _Their Eyes Were Watching God_? It's beautiful, and Alice Walker had read this book and gotten inspiration for _The Color Purple_ from it. Also Hurston is just such a joy to read.

I think the biggest problem is the language. Reading dialect, especially in this day and age when a lot of people have never actually heard it makes it as hard to read as Beowulf in Old English. I actually had a similar problem with Their Eyes Were Watching God, a gorgeous book I had to read out loud to understand!

The movie certainly made the themes in the book more understandable. And I will go to my grave swearing Whoopi Goldberg was robbed of an Oscar for her performance. I think listening to the language makes it a lot easier to understand.