The Color Purple (Unabridged) [Audio Download]

This book has totally captivated me. The characters are absolutely well drawn and the prose is exceptional.
Through the fictional epistolary of two sisters, Celie and Nettie, the reader can follow the vicissitudes of some black women striving to escape a destiny of abuse, oppression and poverty. Alice Walker captures masterfully their world and their existence.
I loved Sophie so much. She appears as a rebellious, even intimidating creature.
It should be noted that men in this novel are really negative figures. They are mercilessy portrayed in their insensitiveness and brutality. It seems that they intimidate and humiliate women in order to exercise their power.
A remarkable novel and a highly recommended reading.

I saw the film a long time ago. I bought the book around the same time but as often happens with me, I didnt read it because I had just seen the movie and I 'knew what happened'. Then when it made it to our book group short list, and black history month was coming up, I went to look for my book, and I couldnt find it. So off I went into town to hopefully find one. I found one copy in the bookshop.

I started reading it a little half-heartedly since I wanted to read something cheerful and I really didnt remember the film being that cheerful. Anyway, I persevered, and found myself really involved in the story. I put the dvd on expecting it to be really depressing (from memory) and it was really really good. I picked the book up again, waiting for bits in the movie to take place in the book, but the book is slightly different. The general story and the outcome is the same but inbetween is fuller somehow. When I saw the film the first time, I focused on the abuse and the beatings and the miserable existence that Celie has, but that really is a small part of it compared to all the good things that happen to her in the end.

She says to her rotten wife-beating husband:

'Until you do right by me, everything you touch will crumble. Everything you even dream about will fail'

I guess that's a case of what goes around comes around because that's what happens. Treat people mean and expect to be treated the same way. Celie is nice to everyone, even the rotten husband, but in the end things do go right for her. Reading this book made me feel better about life in general. There is hope, people say nice guys finish last, but maybe they run a better race.

The Color Purple is set in 1909+ in the South, the story of a poor, ill-educated, abused, 'ugly*' black woman, writing letters to God and her sister and her sister writing back. The whole book is a series of letters. I would recommend to everyone and has become one of my favourite books.

(*ugly because she is told so many times in the book, until finally someone loves her and tells her she is beautiful)

'The Color Purple' is an intriguing and insightful window into the life of young Celie. Expressed in letter form we journey with Celie through the torments facing her in the deep South of America. She suffers abuse at the hands of the man she refers to as her 'Father' and the easy-to-follow letter format of the novel means that almost anyone can tap into the world of Celie. Friends described it as Feminist, though I struggled with this term. Others called it 'anti-male'. Though it is true that many traditional patriarchal images are challenged in the novel, the horrors of some of the male characters are not the main focus of the novel, nor do any of the female characters of the novel challenge to any great extent the male characters. The novel's purpose is to highlight and to celebrate the resilience and sisterhood of Women. It is a Womanist rather than feminist novel. Despite the horrors faced by Celie, Sophia and others, they endure, remain hopeful and find happiness. The seductive beauty represented by Shug Avery's cosmopolitan yet sensitive image to Celie is strangely taken on board by the reader. As for Walker's discussion of God and his/her role, the text is thought provoking without overtly challenging. The challenges that do exist are expressed through the innocence of ignorance, evoking in the readers mind questions, or even notions that one cannot help but debate later if not with others in our own minds. Do we need to go to church to have a relationship with God? God's cathartic role, and the extent to which this can be transferred to other important influences in one's life. Is the grass ever greener? The Color Purple allows a middle class lad from the UK a unique if limited window into an otherwise unknown world, unknown perspective and richly debatable content... Buy it!