The Color Purple

Gorgeous. Masterfully told - a perfect novel. Spiritual and profound and GORGEOUS.

Briefly: told through a series of letters from the protagonist, Celie, it begins as something atmospheric and shimmering and vague. She's young, terribly ignorant, afraid, and living in a very small, limited world. I had trouble placing the context and understanding what was going on, and so I cheated and looked it up on wiki: oh, it's 1930s Georgia, okay. Which I guess is one of the first big points of the book: the multi-generational nature of racism and oppression in the US. In other words, I could tell it was the South, but I couldn't tell which century. :/

The oppression is, indeed, very very oppressive, but the book is a touching and beautiful portrait of Celie's eventual emancipation and empowerment. It feels completely cliche to even write it like that, but that's what it is, and it's very special and very touching. It's uplifting in such a deep way. I don't want to give away the latter half of the book, but there's an extended sequence of letters from another (unexpectedly returned) character that was also eye-opening, mind-expanding. There's also a scene where the title is explained - okay, that is usually something I am always skeptical about (explaining book titles in books themselves, like “Now we must await... THE RETURN OF THE KING.” sigh) - but here it was such a surprising, perfect moment. The color purple indeed! THE COLOR PURPLE. Like all good art, it made me see my own world in a new, fresh way.

I also felt like this touched on such important, deep aspects of the black experience in America. Really, REALLY good. Can't recommend it enough.