The Color Purple

I've known of The Color Purple for so long but never read it. The new Folio Society edition finally pushed me into reading it, and I'm so glad I did. This is a beautiful novel about love and human connection and the wonder that is the heart of all true religion, as well as the immutable reality of suffering. Alice Walker describes herself as a “medium” for her characters, and indeed they seem so real that it's hard to think of this as fiction.

“I remember one time you said your life made you feel so ashamed you couldn't even talk about it to God, you had to write it, bad as you thought your writing was. Well, now I know what you meant. And whether God will read letters or no, I know you will go on writing them; which is guidance enough for me. Anyway, when I don't write to you I feel as bad as I do when I don't pray, locked up in myself and choking on my own heart.”