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Bloggers tackle Sapphire's Push with Precious buzz
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Gaboure "Gabby" Sidibe, Precious star
With the release of the movie Precious, both mainstream media and the blogosphere are buzzing again about the troubling story of an obese Harlem teen facing unfathomable abuse.
The movie is based on the novel Push by Sapphire, first reased in 1996. Precious, which opened in limited release Nov. 6 but will be in theaters across the country Nov. 20, touts Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry as executive producers, was directed by Lee Daniels, stars Mo'Nique as a horrifying mother and introduces Gabourey "Gabby" Sidibe as Claireece Precious Jones.
Here are some reviews from bloggers.
Nordette Adams aka the African-American Books Examiner writes an in-depth review of Push at BlogHer, "Sapphire's Push: Merciless Honesty," with links to more on the movie:
Sapphire's Writing in Push
Sapphire writes the way writers are told to write in creative writing classes everywhere. They are told "write what you know," and "tell the truth," but "show, don't tell." The novel Push reflects parts of the author's life, rises with brutal honesty, and is one long showing of the kind of life that goes unseen. As the main character says often, she's invisible. But Sapphire makes Precious Jones visible to us in simple language charged with brute strength, with images so tight women incest survivors in a support group are described as having faces that look like bombs that wake Precious up to see herself: "I am a bomb" and perhaps us to see how we're all endangered when we fail to diffuse with help the bombs built in a basement called child abuse.
The story is true despite being a work of fiction. She deals with ignorance, colorism, black self-hate, the complexities of embracing pride in blackness as presented by Louis Farrakhan which gives rise to beliefs like "crack is not the problem but crackers," the bigotry we nurture to feel superior to others like gays, the isolation of illiteracy and poverty, tricks of the welfare trade and trade in welfare system trickery, mirrors of sexual orientation, and definitions of manhood. You read about this girl fighting to learn to read, her insane mother, depraved father, ... (Read more of Nordette Adams's review of Push at BlogHer.com)
Other Push Reviews from Bloggers:
- Zabeth's Corner. She calls it a modern-day Color Purple.
- NY Gossip Girl. She calls the book "horrible" as in she hates the book.
- Purplemist couldn't put the book down.
- Brooklyn Critic blog:
All in all, this was a hard story of a child’s struggle. It made me smile at times to see her persevere and to read about her dedication to her son. But, most of all, it made me feel disgusted. As a parent, I just couldn’t fathom two people conceiving, and giving birth to a child only to abuse her in that way. Even when she was “rid” of her parents she still lost, in my opinion, because her father left her with a disease that will affect the rest of her life.
- Jeanine at Write On says the book blew her mind.
More on the movie, Precious:
Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry are the movie's executive producers, both prominent figures who have publicly admitted that they were abused as children. The two are good friends, and Oprah says she doesn't have many of those.
Sapphire is known as a performance poet, sometimes called a spoken word artist. She is also a novelist, the author of the critically-acclaimed book Push, her first novel. ... Read more here, Push becomes Precious
Comedian/Actress Mo'Nique on Oprah. The talk-show host believes Mo'Nique's given an Oscar-worthy performance as the abusive mother.
Carol opens at number one, but Precious hits high note, the LA Times.
Movie review, "Precious Cuts Deep."
Find out if/when the movie Precious shows in your area here.
Nordette Adams is a BlogHer.com CE and the African-American Books Examiner. You may keep up with her writing at Her411. Subscribe to her Examiner posts at this link.
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