THE COLOR PURPLE --- ALICE WALKER

 Name of the book: The Color purple

Author: Alice Walker

Genre: African American women- fiction, Epistolary novel

ISBN 978 - 0 - 15 - 603182 - 0

No of pages: 294

Publisher : Harcourt, Inc.

Price: 388 (on flipkart.com)

Author: Alice Walker, the famous African American writer, has won Pulitzer Award for The Color Purple. She is an activist who has worked for the cause of downtrodden black women. She has coined the term Womanism which is closely associated with feminism.

Blurb says: The Color Purple is the story of two sisters-- one a missionary to Africa and the other a child wife living in the South-- who remain loyal to one another across time, distance, and silence. Beautifully imagined and deeply compassionate, this classic of American literature is rich with passion, pain, inspiration, and an indomitable love of life.

Excerpt: I ast him to take me instead of Nettie while our new mammy sick. But he just ast me what i'm talking bout. I tell him I can fix myself up for him. I duck into my room and comeout wearing horsehair, feathers, and a pair of our new mammy high heel shoes. He beat me for dressing trampy but he do it to me anyway.

Aishwarya speeks: The Color Purple is an account of Celie a black woman who has been marginalized and subjugated by the patriarchal society. She undergoes an array of bitter experiences which a woman of today cannot even think of. She never tries to come out from the cage built by her husband Mr.------- until she meets Shug Avery. Later, Shug, being pictured as woman with a man's will, transforms Celie to a perfect independent woman. Involved in a lesbian relation with Shug, Celie discovers her individuality and even her body that couldn't evoke any feelings in her mind. This saga narrates the distressing life of black women who couldn't even articulate a simple word against the male supremacy. An epistolary novel, The Color Purple also speaks out the strong bond of Celie with her sister Nettie who somehow survives the storms with strong determination. 

I was not reading the novel rather I was experiencing it and that makes the novel more powerful. The author portrays the exact life of black people who were beaten to pulp during the span of colonization.

Each word in this novel expresses the intensity of their pain. Written in Black English, The Color Purple is a Womanist Post colonial novel. A person who has any feeling for woman would certainly love it.

My rating:5/5

Price: $8.95