Everything You Need to Know About Alice Walker’s ‘The Color Purple’

Image credit: Everett Collection

This January, our 2024 book club starts with a novel that has left a significant mark on readers since its publication in 1982 – Alice Walker's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, 'The Color Purple’.

In anticipation, we've been exploring the novel's profound themes, its impact on literature, and the excitement around its upcoming movie adaptation - no major spoilers, we promise!

For those coming across this book for the first time, 'The Color Purple' is a captivating story unfolding in the early 20th century, tracing the life of Celie, an African American woman in the Deep South.

Through Celie's letters to God, the novel explores her struggles with abuse, racism, and sexism.

With that, Alice Walker weaves a compelling tale of resilience, self-discovery, and sisterhood as Celie finds strength and connection with other remarkable women - making it an inspiring read for feminists everywhere.

About the author 

Born in rural Georgia and raised in homes without electricity or plumbing, Alice Walker was the eighth daughter to sharecroppers. While growing up she was accidentally blinded in one eye, and her mother gave her a typewriter, allowing her to write instead of doing other chores.

Walker eventually became an activist and a writer, with 41 books across genres. 'The Color Purple' was awarded the Pulitzer Prize, making her the first Black woman to win the prize for fiction.

Beyond her literary achievements, Walker has been a vocal advocate for social justice.

Her ability to address societal issues through powerful storytelling has solidified her status as a literary icon. In 1967, Alice married Melvyn Rosenman Leventhal, a Jewish civil rights attorney, and they became the first legally married interracial couple in Mississippi.

Key themes and talking points

Oppression and empowerment: Walker tackles the harsh realities of racial and gender-based oppression, portraying the characters' journeys from victimhood to empowerment.

Sisterhood and solidarity: The novel celebrates the bonds forged between women, highlighting the transformative power of female relationships in the face of adversity.

Spiritual awakening: Celie's letters to God serve as a poignant exploration of spirituality and personal growth, providing a unique lens through which to view her evolving sense of self.

The upcoming movie adaptation

It's been almost four decades since Steven Spielberg's classic adaptation of 'The Color Purple' was released, and now a reimagined, fresh version prepares to grace our screens, in cinemas from 26th January.

Directed by Blitz Bazawule (who also helmed Beyoncé's Black Is King), the latest adaptation promises to breathe new life into Celie's story, while staying true to the novel's emotional depth and social significance. 

As for the cast, expect to see singer Fantasia Barrino stars as Celie, Danielle Brooks (Orange Is the New Black) as Sofia, Henson (Hidden Figures) as Shug Avery, Corey Hawkins (Straight Outta Compton) as Harpo, Colman Domingo (Euphoria) as Mister, H.E.R. as Squeak and Halle Bailey (The Little Mermaid) as Young Nettie.

Whether you're revisiting the novel or experiencing it for the first time, 'The Color Purple's’ timeless themes and powerful storytelling are sure to spark thought-provoking discussions at book clubs all around - the perfect choice to inspire a new year of reading. 

We’d like to say a big thank you to book club member Helena for writing this beautiful blog post! If you would like to write a blog for us, please submit your idea to: londonfeministbookclubcic@gmail.com.

2023 Book Club reads

London Feminist Book Club has had a wonderful year of fun, fantasy and feminist friends, so we thought we’d take a moment to reflect on all the books we’ve read for the book club, and get some of our members feedback!

As always, and we would like to take a moment to thank all of you for your support in 2023. We literally wouldn’t exist without you - so to our book club members, our volunteers, our board members and to all the authors and book shops and venues who have hosted us, thank you so much.

Now back to the books…

Across South and North London Feminist Book club, we have read a range of fantastic, women-written books (listed on the following pages) which have taken us on journeys of tragedy, comedy, difficult relationships and liberating revelations.

Not only have we read some amazing authors, but we’ve met some too! It has been our pleasure and honour to welcome authors such as Tice Cin, Amy Key, Rosie Wilby and Jyoti Patel into our community to share some insight into their creative practices. We are so excited to host more author events in the new year.

This year also saw the launch of the London Feminist Book Club Festival! This would not have been possible without every members’ support and passion to help us bring this to life and we simply cannot wait to do it all over again in 2024.

We have so many plans and aspirations for the new year ahead and we are so excited and thrilled to have you as part of this journey!

We hope you enjoy this blog, and remember to follow us on our socials - we have South and North London, London, and now Sheffield and Bristol, were also on LinkedIn, X, and Tiktok. That’s a whole lot of content for you!

January

‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow'
Gabrielle Zevin

Spanning 30 years, and travelling through a myriad of destinations, Zevin's ‘Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow’ is an intricately imagined novel that examines the nature of identity & failure, and above all, our need to connect. It is a love story you haven’t read before.

February

‘Lessons in Chemistry'
Bonnie Garmus

Chemist Elizabeth Zott is not your average woman. But it’s the early 1960s and her all-male team at Hastings Research Institute takes a very unscientific view of equality.

Elizabeth Zott finds herself not only a single mother, but the reluctant star of America’s most beloved cooking show Supper at Six. Elizabeth’s scientific approach to cooking isn’t just teaching women to cook. She’s daring them to change the status quo.

March

‘The Things That We Lost'
Jyoti Patel

When Nik’s grandfather dies, he has the opportunity to learn about the man he never met. Armed with a key and new knowledge about his parents' past, Nik sets out to unlock the secrets that his mother has been holding onto his whole life.

April

‘I’m Glad My Mom Died'
Jennette McCurdy

A heartbreaking and hilarious memoir by iCarly and Sam & Cat star Jennette McCurdy. Told with refreshing candor and dark humor, ‘I’m Glad My Mom Died’ is an inspiring story of resilience, independence, and the joy of shampooing your own hair.

May

‘Keeping the House'
Tice Cin

Centred on North London’s Turkish heroin trade, and the overlapping leaves, are the stories of its players. There’s Damla, a Turkish-Cypriot girl growing up in Tottenham, and her mother Ayla. There’s Mehmet, a mover in the trade, and Ali, who’s got big hopes for Ayla.

'Keeping the House’ is a bewitching debut that lifts the lid on a covert world, with a dynamic introduction to a fascinating new voice.

June

‘Really Good, Actually'
Monica Heisey

Maggie is fine. She’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s broke, her graduate thesis on something obscure which is going nowhere, and her marriage only lasted 608 days, but at the ripe old age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new life as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée.

This is a remarkable debut from an unforgettable new voice in fiction.

July

‘Arrangements in Blue’
Amy Key

Now in her forties, poet Amy Key sets out to explore the realities of a life lived in the absence of romantic love, using Joni Mitchell’s Blue as her guide.

‘Arrangements in Blue’ explores the painful feelings we are usually too ashamed to discuss: loneliness, envy, grief and failure.

September

‘I’m Sorry You Feel That Way’
Rebecca Wait

A compelling domestic comedy about complex family dynamics, mental health and the intricacies of sibling relationships.

As adults, Alice and Hanna must deal with disappointments in work and in love as well as increasingly complicated family tensions, and lives that look dismayingly dissimilar to what they'd intended.

October

‘Yellowface’
R. F. Kuang

When Athena dies in a freak accident, June steals her unpublished manuscript and publishes it as her own under the pseudonym Juniper Song.

‘Yellowface’ grapples with questions of diversity, racism, and cultural appropriation, as well as the terrifying alienation of social media.

November

‘The Breakup Monologues’
Rosie Wilby

This book is a love letter to Rosie’s breakups in a celebration of what they have taught her. With anecdotes from illustrious friends and interviews with relationship therapists, scientists and sociologists. Rosie delves deep into the modern age of ghosting, breadcrumbing and conscious uncoupling.

December

‘The Woman in Me’
Britney Spears

‘The Woman In Me’ reveals Spears’s incredible journey to reclaiming her own freedom. Written with incredible candor and humor, This ground-breaking book illuminates the power of music and love—and the importance of a woman telling her own story, on her own terms, at last.