The Color Purple
Alice Walker · b. 1944 · United States
Why it matters
A Black woman's survival of abuse and poverty in the rural South unfolds through her own letters to God and to her lost sister. The first novel by a Black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction.
At a glance
epistolarybildungsroman
Difficulty 5/10fast pace295 pagesPhonetic vernacular narration takes adjustment though the syntax stays simple.
Deep dive
How a woman who addresses her letters to God learns, over decades of correspondence, whom she's actually been talking to.
Where to go next
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Sylvia Plath · 1963The Bell JarLvl 4Medium pace
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Edna O'Brien · 1960The Country GirlsLvl 3Medium pace
Tsitsi Dangarembga · 1988Nervous ConditionsLvl 4Medium pace
Steven Millhauser · 1996Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American DreamerLvl 5Medium pace