Book Review: The Color Purple by Alice Walker

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I have just finished reading the 1983 Pulitzer Prize winner and a National Book Award winner, The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

As I write this I realise that I was two years old when the book was first published and maybe 4 when the movie based on it released. Women were even then (1982) fighting for things which they are struggling for now (2018) and they seem to be doing just that even during the time the book is set in (1900-1940s roughly)

Alice Walker had been on my to-be-read list this year. A list that had made somewhere in the middle of the year about authors new and old, that I wanted to at least taste in this year. (I am mighty proud that I have accomplished quite some)

The interesting thing about this book is that I have come very close to reading this book a few times really but never ever got down to even getting started. The a few months ago I downloaded it on to the Kindle. I started and though it wasn't easy to read it- both because, of the difficult subject and the folksy-Southern American-writing , I soldiered on for about 70-80 pages before quitting it once again. No despair not, I had not given up on the book but life had probably thought of a better time for me to read it than the cacophony of my everyday life.

That right time was a couple of days back when I was at my friend's place for lunch and found the copy of the book in my hands again. Over a quiet weekend ( if you have been here before you might know that I have two kids, aged 10 and 4, so quiet is an overachievement in this household) I finished reading the book.

This my friends, then I found, is a book that I have no authority to review. But what is in my power is to give some words to the feelings that rushed through me as I read and contemplated The Color Purple.

I had never in my wildest dreams thought that this book will be so brave and so exhilarating. It is the story of Celie, a black American girl who is raped by a man she calls father and bears two children who are taken away from her. She is married off to a widower Albert who has 4 kids already and her only supporter, her younger sister Nettie, gets separated from her. Celie's life is miserable and nothing to write home about but a long list of atrocities committed against her, till the time she meets the vivacious and lively Shug Avery- another black woman, singer and 'magic maker'. There are many other characters, like Albert's son Harpo and his rebellious wife Sofia (what a character!), each more interesting than the other.

Why I liked, no- loved, the book is because the book is not about the injustices or Celie's strong spirit (which such books generally are about), but because of Celie's journey that it portrays. For me the book is largely made up of how Celie discovers the magic and confidence in her own being. How this illiterate, degraded, Southern black woman comes to understand and accept herself and is able to make peace and a living for herself. Oh yes! by the end of the book Celie is a businesswoman, earning her own living and living on her own land.



While its a book about the violence between men and women, especially black people here, the book is more about how she discovers love with help from Shug whom she nurses from TB initially and knows to be her husband's mistress.

The book collectively looks at the narrative of slavery and women's plight in the society. Transversing the American continent, England and Africa, filled with hardships and atrocities that men and women have brought upon each other only because of ignorance and on nature because of greed, The Color Purple is the story of power and joy. It is the story of women's fight for equality and justice, fight for being seen who they are and heard as they are.

Though it is set in 1900s and with 262 pages covers a time period of about 40 years, The Color Purple could have been a book set in our times, in almost any part of  the world.

The book, you would think, with its sombre subject would be depressing. The epistolatory nature of the book keeps you hooked because it makes you feel closer to the heroine. The book is fast paced with never a boring moment, and when you are anticipating yet another heartbreak, rewards you with its understanding of the rules of the nature or just a warm humane surprise.

If you haven't read the book, read it. You might discover a thing or two about finding joy in life and living.

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