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“And I couldn’t understand why us have life at an if all it can do most times is make us feel bad. All I ever wanted in life was Shug Avery, he say. Well, us couldn’t have each other, he say. I got Annie Julia. Then you. All of them rotten children. She got Grady and who know who all. But still, look like she come out better than me. A lot of people love Shug, but nobody but Shug love me.
Hard not to love Shug. I say. She know how to love somebody back.”
Took me almost two years to get to the end, and I finally read Pulitzer Winner Alice Walker’s book, The Color Purple. Above are a few of my favorite lines from the book.
I selected this for prompts over the years – Award-Winning book (2020), Black History Month Read (2021), and A Sapphic Work (2022). I love how the author has captured the authenticity of the Afro-American lifestyle through language – hard to understand initially, but it’s not so long before you’ve fallen in.
This is a well-studied, popular book written as letters to someone, and needs no introduction. The book explores women and men of the Afro-American community alike, love, tradition, faith, belonging and also throws light on how Afro-Americans are perceived back in Africa. No words of mine will ever be able to justify the author’s brilliance. So I will leave it to you to imagine it – a must-read in a lifetime.
Rating: 5/5
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