In Search of the Color Purple, The Story of an American Masterpiece, Salamisah Tillet 5/5 💜

Thanks to #NetGalley for an ARC of this book in exchange for a review.

Salamisah explores the journey Alice Walker took to create The Color Purple, exploring both the book, film and broadway adaptions. Salamisah has discussions with those closest to Alice and Alice herself, discussing her life and the difficult paths she has taken to bring herself and the book where it is today.

The Color Purple has over the span of its lifetime been both beloved and reviled. Salamisah explores why so many have both connected with the novel and how so many rejected it.

I love The Color Purple, by chance I only reread it a few weeks ago. I have always found Alice Walkers writing to be phenomenal. Celie, Shug and Sofia are characters who transcend the page. This in depth exploration of those characters beginnings, the work, the life behind it captures the conversation that had continued for years around sexuality, feminism, gender and racial politics. This is one of my favourite books I have read this year. Incredible.

Powerful, gripping and compelling, Salamishah Tullet sucks you into the journey of a writer on the road to writing one of America's at once most beloved and most hated classic stories, who's reach as spanned cultures and a generation.