I have a review of The Color Purple by Alice Walker up over at the National Book Award website
that's celebrating 60 years of its fiction prize by taking new looks at
each winner. You remember that the NBA Foundation is awarding a new prize to the fan
favorite this fall. The Color Purple won both the National Book Award for fiction and the Pulitzer Prize in 1983. Of course, its manifestation in other mediums -- the 1985 Steven Spielberg movie with Whoopi Goldberg as Celie, the stage production now making its way around the nation -- have made the storylines and characters ubiquitous.
But there's no match for the original.
Here's an excerpt from my review:
I picked up my copy of Alice Walker's The Color Purple to jog
my memory of it for this review. I found myself swallowing it whole,
reading it cover to cover in one day, and not merely remembering why I
liked the book, but loving it once again.
Walker accomplishes a rare thing: She makes an epistolary novel work without veering into preciousness. Rather, Celie's full-bodied voice emerges, a moody and honest voice, in an inherently intimate literary form. While she is the protagonist of the novel, she is not the protagonist of her world -- and so, she writes letters to God that no one is expected to read. Celie's letters are written in broken dialect, resulting in surprising juxtapositions and lyricism. As she evolves over the forty years that the novel takes place, so do her letters evolve in nuanced observation and authority. Reading the novel, you don't merely watch Celie change; you feel it in the beat and rhythm of her words.
Walker accomplishes a rare thing: She makes an epistolary novel work without veering into preciousness. Rather, Celie's full-bodied voice emerges, a moody and honest voice, in an inherently intimate literary form. While she is the protagonist of the novel, she is not the protagonist of her world -- and so, she writes letters to God that no one is expected to read. Celie's letters are written in broken dialect, resulting in surprising juxtapositions and lyricism. As she evolves over the forty years that the novel takes place, so do her letters evolve in nuanced observation and authority. Reading the novel, you don't merely watch Celie change; you feel it in the beat and rhythm of her words.
Hi Anna,
Interesting post. Watched an interesting interview with Ms. Walker just a few days ago live from her home in Berkeley. Two thumbs up to her and her inspirational works.
Posted by: Al | August 24, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Im 12, and I thought thet was a great review! I really want to see both the book and the movie. Based an your review, I think this will be pretty interesting. (Im doing a report on her.)
Posted by: G.W. | March 10, 2010 at 07:44 PM
Good luck with your report, G.W!
Posted by: Anna Clark | March 11, 2010 at 08:21 AM
The color purple is a heart- rending narration of the protagonist Celie who has a power of Endurance. The more she suffers , the more she endures. Later the power of endurance makes her realize herself and gives a positive turn of life -family reconciliation. The novel really makes a woman baffled and in fact think of a positive feel of safety and understand how protected we are.
Posted by: B MEENA KUMARI | July 05, 2011 at 01:30 AM