Book Review: The Color Purple

Image from goodreads.com

Title:  The Color Purple
Author:  Alice Walker
Pages:  288
Publication Date:  1982  
Version:  Hardcover
Genre:  Fiction

Summary Via Goodreads.com:
"Celie is a poor black woman whose letters tell the story of 20 years of her life, beginning at age 14 when she is being abused and raped by her father and attempting to protect her sister from the same fate, and continuing over the course of her marriage to "Mister," a brutal man who terrorizes her. Celie eventually learns that her abusive husband has been keeping her sister's letters from her and the rage she feels, combined with an example of love and independence provided by her close friend Shug, pushes her finally toward an awakening of her creative and loving self."

My Review:

What a moving book.  That is the first thought that goes through my mind after finishing this book.  The story about a young black woman who has so many bad things happen to her in her life is very moving.  It is a book that reaches out to your heartstrings and pulls on them.  This girl, Celie, starts out life with abuse from her father, is the outcast of her family, puts up with sexual abuse that leaves her with two children (whom she gives up), then is forced to marry another abusive man and take care of his children from a previous marriage, and deals with a love that she feels for someone she shouldn’t feel it for.  Celie’s sister Nettie leaves and Celie feels lost without her.  She wishes Nettie would write, but gets no letters from her dear sister.  Later she finds out that her husband has been intercepting the letters from Nettie all these years.  Celie finally breaks free from her abusive husband, but not until many years have passed and not without the help of her husbands old lover.  Can Celie learn to "recover" from all that has gone wrong in her past and become a better/confident woman?

There is so much to this book, that to describe it effectively is difficult.  It is written from the viewpoint of Celie, however it is not in “traditional” chapter form, but in letter form.  Celie feels that the only person that will listen to her and her problems is God, so that is how we, the readers, read her story; through Celie’s letters to God.  As I read this book my heart just filled with compassion for Celie and her situations in her life.  Much of the grief and hard times Celie experiences are not by her own doing, but the doing of others onto her.  I really loved how the book was written the way Celie would talk (old south).  I also loved the events that happened in this book.  I have never read such a short book that contained SO much information and that had so much happen in it.  This book is one that I have been meaning to read for years, but never seemed to get around to.  It also is a book that I have heard a lot about and know there is a movie based off of it, but never watched the movie either.  Perhaps now that I have read the book I will look into watching the movie.  I don’t know though, personally I think books are usually way better than any movie produced off of them.  I would highly recommend this book to anyone who has not read it.  It is well worth it to read such a powerful story of one girl’s struggle to get through childhood, adulthood, marriage, kids, family struggles, and just life in general.  It did take me a bit longer than I thought to read some of the pages in this book though, because of the style/language of the writing.  It was a huge part of what made this book such a joy to read though and I am glad the author wrote it the way she did.

4/5 stars


This book counts toward my following challenges:  100 Books Read, 1,000,000 Pages Read, Books Published In the First Years Of My Life Challenge, Color Coded Challenge, and Rainbow Reading Challenge.