This weekend I purchased, PUSH by Sapphire, national bestseller that inspired the movie  Precious. I haven’t seen the movie, and usually prefer to read the book before watching the movie inspired by the book. Sometimes the movie version is tweaked, so I thought it would be best to read the book first. I love the way the book was written. I felt that I was hearing the main character Precious Jones’s story first hand, as though she was a friend explaining this to me. I especially enjoyed watching her grow through the book, as she narrates the book, and her progression is seen through each page. This book brought all kinds of emotions inside of me, from anger, to disgust, to hope.  I sympathized with Precious through the whole story.  It really made me think about perseverance and “pushing” through the moments that we think are impossible to overcome. She faces countless “broken heel moments”, which she could have taken as a reason to stop in her journey. The triumph was seeing her rise despite the obstacles that were placed in her way, which I think is something we can all learn from. Although I may not have gone through what she has, I completely relate with the title “PUSH” and the reoccurring theme of  continuing regardless of how hard the past may have been. I do feel that the ending left me wanting more, I don’t feel that I completely understood if  Precious overcame all her obstacles.

I don’t want to speak too much on the book itself, in order to not giveaway too much. I definitely think everyone should read this book, as there is a lesson to be grasped for all readers.

What Women Want is hosting their second annual Literary Event, next Sunday November 22nd in Troronto. The book chosen for this round is PUSH. If you are in Toronto, definitely worth checking out. Find more info here.

Here is some info on the book:

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. “Sometimes I wish I was not alive,” Precious says. “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.” An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.

Book description and image from Amazon