Push

I read Push in a few hours, and I don't say that to brag. After four books on lit theory, a novel was a breeze. But it was a cold, shitty breeze that make me feel a lot of yuckiness inside. I know that's what everyone will touch on in their posts, how hard it was to read the story of a girl sexually abused by both parents, mother of two kids by her own father before high school, suffering from extreme confusion, depression, poverty, illiteracy, and HIV. Heavy. I know why we read it, what we were supposed to do--gauge our emotional reactions a la Rosenblatt. At the same time we could look at Precious' experiences with reading and writing. I did a little searching on Sapphire and the book, here's an interview. I thought this statement about purpose was interesting: "There's a blues song 'What's Been Done In the Dark Has to Come to the Light' and I think that's something that stays on my mind. I always want to bring out what's been hidden or marginalized. In Precious she is more misunderstood than invisible, we hear about her everyday. Every time Newt Gingrich opens his mouth it's about a welfare mother. I wanted to shed additional light. I wanted to show something behind the statistic. So yeah, I'm on a mission."

These things sparked me -- Precious' descriptions of feelings and people and places are child-like, very low-level from a professional standpoint, and yet they are more wisely phrased and profound than established professional writers, at least in provoking an emotional reaction:

"Can't he see I am a girl for flowers and thin straw legs and a place in the picture."

"There eyez is like far away spaceships."

"I'm alive inside. A bird is my heart."

"...I am sick of the walking dicks of Harlem."

"So my mother--one eye, no man, two children and the Bible."

"Sometime I wish I was not alive. But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out. 'N no matter how bad I feel my heart don't stop beating and my eyes open in the morning."

Other strong themes I picked up on were the power of narratives (especially in the support group scene where Precious learns there are others like her, who have suffered like her), the bullshittiness of bureaucracy (the tests and reports and welfare trouble), and Precious' metamorphosis, best described by her list of what's important to her on pg. 109. Precious walks through Harlem and describes the filth and desperation of the ghetto, her hatred for crackheads and the ironic injustice of being considered one of their lot. Most of all I felt the worst seeing her struggle through the horrible confusion of the sexual abuse at such a young age, by her father. That was the worst. Luckily the love and acceptance she finds in friends and herself leads me to believe that she turned out ok after the last page was turned.

"Ms. Rain say one of the criticizsm of The Color Purple is it have fairy tale ending. I would say, well shit like that can be true. Life can work out for the best sometimes. Ms. Rain love Color Purple too but say realism has its virtues too. Izm, smizm! Sometimes I wanna tell Ms Rain shut up with all the IZM stuff. But she my teacher so I don't tell her shut up. I don't know what "realism" mean but I do know what REALITY is and it's a mutherfucker, lemme tell you."