The Color Purple

by Alice Walker
p 290

Rarely a book and movie coincide so deeply that they become one, but in the case of Alice Walker's "The Color Purple" I cannot separate the two. Having seen the movie first, I naturally gravitated to the movie characters when I first picked up the book. The casting seemed too perfect not to seamlessly input their faces onto the written page. Yet with all good literature, only Walker's beautiful and at times poetic words can bring them to life.
As a Book Club choice, I was not sure I was ready to re-read this book - mostly because I had just read it in the last few years. Yet with each reading or watching of the movie, I glean a little more from the characters and the heartbreak and joy they experience. The relationship between Shug, Celie and Mister is at the core of this story, and with this reading I found myself focusing on how their love for each other somehow overcomes all the hurt and pain they brought to one another.
This redemptive quality resonated throughout the book. The story deals with the difficulties of black Americans in the 1930's, particularly black women. Celie's story is written in letter form first to God, then to her sister Nettie. This personal approach gives her the opportunity
to try to explain, if not make sense of her world. She is an uneducated, poor, abused black woman in the south, yet Walker creates within her letters a full and glorious story of hope.
This book is easily one of my all -time favorites. If you haven't picked it up, do it - then watch the movie.
Rock, Chalk, Jay, Hawk x 100!!!!