Push

This is the third and last review today, I don't have internet at my flat and I get tired writing my blog via phone so I tend to do a weeks worth at my mum's on a Sunday. I also haven't had as much time to read the past couple of weeks between work and feeling a bit under the weather so I whizzed through this (short) book by Sapphire this morning. It is the story, actually it's essentially the diary of Claireece "Precious" Jones. At 16 she is obese, illiterate, abused by her mother and pregnant by her father with her second child. So all fairly harrowing so far. When a school administrator finds out that she is pregnant again they want to kick her out of school but her maff (math, precious spells like I speak! it takes a little getting used to but is a very powerful tactic employed by the author to show the improvement in Precious' literacy) teacher speaks up on her behalf and they find another source of education for her, an alternative school. It is in this new school where Precious meets her new teacher, Ms. Rain. Ms. Rain is the teacher everyone deserves to have, the one that can make a difference to you, and she's that teacher for Precious. So for the first time in her life, Precious feels like she belongs somewhere. She connects with her classmates, makes friends, gets support and starts to believe in herself. It doesn't play out as sentimental mush though, it's written much better than my synopsis suggests. As hard as parts of it are to read, and as sad as it is it is also uplifting but and this is a big but, reading it just made me want to read The Color Purple by Alice Walker again, they're very similar stories, not that Sapphire is ripping off Walker, Precious compares herself to The Color Purples protagonist herself, it's just The Color Purple is a better novel. If you're so inclined they're both certainly worth reading but if you've only time for one i'd have to say The Color Purple would be my choice.