77. The Color Purple - Alice Walker

I'm embarrassed that I'm just now reading this ... this is such a fabulous novel!

This classic by Alice Walker is told mostly from the point of view of a girl named Celie in the form of diary entries. Celie is raped and impregnated twice by a man she calls Pa (after reading this and Push, I need to find some cheerier fiction!). The children are taken from her, and she ends up marrying a man referred to in the book as "Mr. ____." Mr. ___ has a mistress who goes by Shug Avery, who comes to live with Mr. ___ and Celie. It seems at first that Shug demeans Celie, like Mr. ____ does; but later, Shug and Celie become intimate and Shug helps Celie to discovery her sexuality.

Celie also has a sister, Nettie, who Celie's husband tries to seduce. When he couldn't, he forces Nettie to leave. Celie doesn't hear from Nettie for years, and so she assumes that Nettie is dead; but eventually it comes out through Shug that Mr. ____ was hiding letters from Nettie in a trunk. Nettie had been traveling in Africa with a missionary couple, Sam and Corrine, and their adopted children ... who turn out to be Celie's long-lost children.

The plot is complicated, so I won't go any further into it, but it is such a beautiful story. Maybe it's just my selection of books, but I haven't read much about homosexual relationships in African American literature - so I was surprised at Shug and Celie's relationship. It seems Shug had shallow relationships and Celie had physically and emotionally abusive relationships - so their relationship with each other was really the first time that they both seemed to experience love.

One of my favorite quotes comes from when Nettie is explaining how Corrine has started to think that the adopted children are really Nettie's children, because they look like Nettie - which would mean that Sam had cheated on Corinne with Nettie. In reality, the children look like Nettie because she is their aunt - but of course they don't know that at that point. But Nettie says, "She gets weaker and weaker, and unless she can believe us and start to feel something for her children, I fear we will lose her. Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly."

I also love the part where Celie has left her husband and gone to Memphis with Shug: she has started her own business and is doing really well for herself, and starts off her letter to Nettie with: "Dear Nettie, I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time!" It's just so powerful in the context of the story because things have finally started looking up for Celie!

Definitely a beautiful classic piece of literature that I would recommend reading! Now I'll definitely have to see the play ...