Wednesday, February 13, 2019

The Color Purple / Alice Walker / 288 pages

One of the categories for the 2019 Read Harder Challenge is to read an epistolary novel. Epistolary novels are my favorite and I have already read tons, but I had no idea that The Color Purple, which I had never read, was a novel made up of letters. I had seen the movie a couple of times but had never read the book.

This is one of those books that I felt very torn about. I had a tough time with the book for the first half, but it got better and ended up grabbing my attention later. The story is told in a series of letters, first Celie's letters to God, then letters from her sister, Nettie, to her, then letters from her to Nettie. I think when those letters from her sister begin, about halfway through the book, that's when it finally got interesting and I ended up enjoying the latter half of the book far more than I did the first half.

Celie is a young black woman living around 1915 Georgia with her dad and mother. She is raped by her father and gives birth twice to children that her father takes away; she knows not where. Celie is not educated or good looking, unlike her younger sister Nettie, who is both of those things. Celie is given to an unnamed Mr. _____ to marry. He beats her and is obviously having an affair with Shug, a worldly beautiful singer. Meanwhile, Celie's sister runs away from home and a lifetime passes before they reconnect.

I'm glad I got to read this during Black History Month, as it is a good reminder of what life was like for African Americans in Jim Crow South. I recommend the book, but with the caveat that it's a tough read at first. Get through it and it gets better.

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