{"id":1601920,"date":"2020-09-12T22:32:41","date_gmt":"2020-09-13T02:32:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/?p=1601920"},"modified":"2020-09-12T22:32:57","modified_gmt":"2020-09-13T02:32:57","slug":"divine-reads-push-by-sapphire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/divine-reads-push-by-sapphire\/","title":{"rendered":"DIVINE Reads: Push by Sapphire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Push by Sapphire is the third book in our monthly series featuring black authors<\/a>. The movie, Precious, starring Academy Award nominee, Gabourey Sidibe was based on the book and caused some confusion.\u00a0 Many people thought that the name of the book was Precious as well.\u00a0 Push<\/a> was released in 1996, 13 years before it was made into a movie.\u00a0 Sapphire began writing Push in 1993 just as she was about to leave her job as a remedial reading teacher in Harlem to attend Brooklyn College’s MFA program.\u00a0 The book is based on her experiences and the women she met as a result of her job.<\/p>\n

Push By Sapphire: About the Book<\/h2>\n

Precious Jones, an illiterate sixteen-year-old, has up until now been invisible to the father who rapes her and the mother who batters her and to the authorities who dismiss her as just one more of Harlem’s casualties. But when Precious, pregnant with a second child by her father, meets a determined and radical teacher, we follow her on a journey of education and enlightenment as she learns not only how to write about her life, but how to make it truly her own for the first time.<\/p>\n

The Review<\/h2>\n

Push is a slight book, with only 177 pages.\u00a0 It will take you more time than you think to read the novel though.\u00a0 It is written in a unique way, entirely from the perspective of Precious.\u00a0 The character began the novel as illiterate and the writing doesn\u2019t just take you inside of her head.\u00a0 It also is written journal style.\u00a0 As the character becomes more literate, her writing changes too.\u00a0 At the beginning, many words are spelled phonetically, but this changes throughout the novel in keeping with her progress with reading and spelling.<\/p>\n

This is a gritty book, and can be difficult to read, not only because of the phonetic writing style at the beginning, but because of the continuous suffering of the main character.\u00a0 The abuse of Precious can be difficult to read about, especially because she is so used to it that the references to it almost become casual.\u00a0 There is something so touching about the character though.<\/p>\n

For all of the suffering that she has gone through, she still wants more for her life and for her children.\u00a0 Reading was not an escape for her, but a gateway to hope.\u00a0 It gave her the hope of education, a normal life and even the possibility of love without abuse.\u00a0 Precious had so many strikes against her.\u00a0 She was locked out by her illiteracy, her abuse and her race.\u00a0 Once she learned how to read, she became someone who knew that her dreams were valid.<\/p>\n

Sapphire\u2019s debut is incredible.\u00a0 To be able to write a story in a way that reflects illiteracy but in a readable way is difficult.\u00a0 She succeeded.\u00a0 She also succeeded in writing a book that doesn\u2019t show that things were perfect once the character achieved her goal.\u00a0 It is realistic and gritty.\u00a0 If you haven\u2019t read this book yet, pick it up.\u00a0 It\u2019s not an easy subject, nor is it an easy book, but it is powerful and you will have an opinion about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Push by Sapphire is the third book in our monthly series featuring black authors. The movie, Precious, starring Academy Award nominee, Gabourey Sidibe was based on the book and caused…<\/div>\n
View Post<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":1601923,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[7094,183,7833,7836,7834,7837,7832,7835],"powerkit_post_featured":[3],"class_list":{"0":"post-1601920","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-reviews","8":"tag-black-authors","9":"tag-book-reviews","10":"tag-gabourey-sidibe","11":"tag-illiteracy","12":"tag-precious","13":"tag-precious-based-on-the-novel-push-by-sapphire","14":"tag-push-by-sapphire","15":"tag-push-by-sapphire-reviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601920","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1601920"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601920\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1601926,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1601920\/revisions\/1601926"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1601923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1601920"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1601920"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1601920"},{"taxonomy":"powerkit_post_featured","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/divine.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/powerkit_post_featured?post=1601920"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}