A review by amanda1793
The Color Purple by Alice Walker

4.0

This book was interesting! I loved reading about the history of coloured people in the southern States and the history of the slave trade, with an interesting look at what life was like in African Tribes. This book also allowed me to look at an interesting group of people in many different ways.

I don't think that I have ever read a book that featured a LGBTQIA+ relationship in this time, and I was pleasantly surprised. I did, however, find it particularly interesting that the relationship was supported by many people even if they only had a inkling of what was going on. I only state this because of the time this story takes place in, while I do realize that the relationship was private, when the family did find out I thought that I would be reading about some sort of conflict with the relationship at it's core, but I'm glad I was proven incorrect.

The look into the lives of coloured people in this time was interesting, again because we as readers got to see the different ways of life featured (ie. married life on a farm in Georgia, life living among an African tribe). To learn about the life of missionaries was interesting especially due to the way this story is told.

I was shocked to read about so much abuse. In many forms. Sexual abuse of children and wives (because I did feel that Celie was abused by her husband, only because she never really wanted to have sex with him but knew she "had" to because she was his wife), physical abuse of wives (whether it was a "just because" or "you did this and shouldn't have", go Sofia for protecting herself and swinging back), and the emotional abuse (telling people they aren't good enough etc., and taking away people's children).

The way this story is told is interesting and different from what I have previously read. Reading a story through letters allows the reading experience to be more personal, and I found I really enjoyed this aspect.

I liked that there was this realization that God is clearly not just one person, nor is He/does He have to be a white male, He is everything and everyone, and I found this to be quite an interesting revelation for this group of characters.

My only issue with this book was the difficulty I had reading some of it due to the language being difficult to understand at times. I realize that is the point to the writing style, but there were times that attempting to understand the written word was difficult.

4 star read for sure! I do recommend this book for anyone!