Virtual Lesbian Library is our new monthly reading club hosted over Google Meet every second Friday of the month at 6pm.

Join our Discord to take part in book club discussions throughout the month.

The Color Purple

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For July we will be reading The Color Purple by Alice Walker.

This is an award winning novel with both film and musical adaptations from a black author featuring a lesbian protagonist and as such we decided it would be a good choice to read this month.

The Color Purple (1982) is written as a series of letters from the protagonist to both God and her sister Nettie. It focuses on the life of Celie, from her childhood in rural Georgia to her romance with a female jazz and blues singer .

The novel led to Alice Walker becoming the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1983 and was listed in 2019 on the BBC’s 100 most influential novel lists. Conversely, it has also been the topic of censorship and controversy due to the themes of sexual explictness, violence and homosexuality.

It has also faced criticism due to its depiction of black men, with some critics believing it plays into negative stereotypes of black male violence.

It should be mentioned that the book can be considered a harder read due to its themes of child sexual abuse and domestic violence, especially in the first half of the novel.

Where can I read it?

The Color Purple is available to read for free on the Open Library online via >this link< or a physical copy may be available at your local library.