The Color Purple

Alice Walker

Why do you want to read all that... that Women's Studies bollocks? said one of my friends at Uni (who was strictly all about Modernism, Post Modernism, and doomy Russian novelists)...it's so worthy. More on that later.

Bit of a wrench letting this one go, but recycling the ones that will always stay in print and are easy enough to get hold of, is the whole point of this anyway.

Worthy. Well... The book is about poverty, oppression, its heroine is a poor black woman. If that's something to sneer at, then yes, it is worthy. It's also about redemption and is fabulously optimistic and life-affirming. I love it that she quotes Stevie Wonder, rather than some high-falutin' literary quote at the beginning, to make her point "Show me how to do like you" - that you can refuse to be a victim and can transcend your circumstances, as long as you have someone to love and to inspire you.