The Color Purple

every night I read this book with my wife to study English. this time is so good for us.

I have taken a particular interest in reading books where the chief characters suffered abuses and overcame their traumas to become better persons in life. I am glad I did because there is so much to learn and be inspired by such books. THE USURPER AND OTHERS, WHY THE CAGED BIRD SINGS are amongst the titles I cherished. Also recommended: DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, THE UNION MOUJIK, THE COLOR OF WATER

突然洋書が読みたい！と思い始めて読破した物語です。簡単なオンラインのテストなどをすると500語レベルの私。 500語程度の本は児童書がほとんどで、ピュアな心も無い私にはつまらなく、読む事が苦痛そうなので なんとか、大人が読める本をと探していて出会ったのがこのカラーパープルです。1人の女性の結構壮絶な生き様・・ 英語の勉強などを抜きにしても、興味深いストーリーでした 最初はスラング？のような聞いたこともない言葉、英語を読む事も20年ぶり・・という事で半分意味がわからずに読み始めましたが、3割ぐらいを読んだあたりから、ストーリーの情景が頭に浮かぶようになり、続きが楽しみになってきました。 英語であろうが、日本語であろうが、面白い、興味深いというのは同じなのだと自分にも自信がついた一冊です

At the beginning of this book, Alice Walker writes, “To the Spirit: Without whose assistance neither this book nor I would have been written.” And at the end of this book Alice Walker writes, “I thank everybody in this book for coming. A.W., author and medium.” Dostoevsky, in letters to his publisher, frequently outlined some scene he had in mind to write and said it would be masterly if, when he sat down to it, inspiration came. What is inspiration? It is a mysterious something that enables the author to write things that he had no idea he knew, so that, looking back, he asks himself: “Where on earth did I get that from?” It seems that the same kind of inspiration seized Walker. Presumably because of that, this book is confused and hard to read, but this is a very important book, and the importance lies in the fact that “black people problem” was taken up from an unprecedentedly new aspect. And I think it could not have been possible if Walker had not been black. Almost all the black men in this book have hardly a redeeming feature. They are wicked and vulgar and do nothing but molest and beat their daughter and wife. But one can see another tragedy of “black people problem” in there. White men prosecute black men. Black men, unable to rebel against them, have to vent their stressed emotion. So they try to resolve their frustration by bullying black women weaker than themselves. And this book is also bold in saying that for a woman, standing up for herself means being independent even in terms of sex. Thus the black woman discards black men and becomes a lesbian. The happy ending is deeply tragic. Walker did not write thus, I think, in bitterness, but because she knew that this is what it would all come to, and she had to tell the truth.

黒人の姉妹の絆を丁寧に描いた傑作です。 近親相姦、愛のない結婚、夫の愛人との同居…と、物語は実に暗いところから始まりますが、 そこからとてつもなく愛情にあふれた話へと移っていきます。 不幸の頂点にいたような女性が、そしてそれを不幸と感じることさえもできなかった女性が、 遠く離れた妹からの手紙をきっかけに、美しく変化していきます。 姉妹二人が交わす手紙がとても心のこもった美しい手紙で、こんなに人の心を打つ手紙が書けたらいいな、と思います。

この本は映画化されているので題名を知ってる方はたくさんいると思います。原本はセリーの日記として書かれています。はじめ彼女は神様に当てて手紙を書きます。その日の事件や感じたこと。そしてある日、神様はいないと感じてからは別れてしまった妹にあてて手紙を書き続けます。セリーは黒人ですが、もう奴隷ではありません。それでも、暴力によって父親に、夫に奴隷のように扱われていました。人生で初めての友達で恋人の出現が彼女を目覚めさせ解放させます。「教育のない黒人」が書いた英語という設定なのでスラングが少し読みにくいかも知れませんが、映画とはまた、ぜんぜん違った味があります。私は映画を先に見ていたので読み終わって「あ、そうだったのか」と納得しました。何十年もたってから妹が帰ってくるんですが、そのときには彼女は本当に人間らしく自分の足で立っているんです。感動しましたとしか言い様がないのですが、私の大切な一冊です。

授業でブック・リポートを書くことになり、選んだ本がこの作品。 神様に宛てた日記形式で淡々と進んでいくのですが、その内容はまさに過酷。 主人公の、義父からの性的虐待、母親の死、子供と妹との別れ、政略結婚、家庭内暴力・・・ 人間としてではなく、まさに機械のように旦那の世話をしながら「尽くす妻」としての日々を過ごす主人公ですが、 旦那の愛人である女性との出会いから物語は良い方向に傾いていきます。 自分とは違って自立した女性である旦那の愛人と触れ合うことで、主人公は勇気を出して、自分で自分の道を切り開いていこうと決断します。 最後は思いがけない展開に。感動の嵐で涙が止まりませんでした。

大学の授業で使うために購入しました。お安い値段で手に入ったのでありがたいです。

Funny at times. Sad at times. Enlightening all the way through. Written as a series of chats with God and letters to and from Celie and her sister, Nettie, this book takes place over 40 year in Georgia. It highlights the terrible prejudice toward Celie by her own kind. Her life is so bad, being abused, sexually, physically and emotionally by the man she thinks is her father, and having given birth to his two children, she is married off to an equally abusive womanising husband. She is separated from her sister, Nettie, who eventually goes to Africa as a help to a black missionary and his wife. This couple have adopted Celie’s children, unbeknown to her, whose parentage is not known to the missionary couple. Nettie experiences the terrible greed and lust for land and money of the rubber planters, and also the appalling culture of scarification and FGM within the tribe with whom they live. Celie’s life only turns a corner when she meets one of the women her husband is involved with. This lady, Shug, is a strong character who encourages Celie (eventually) to take a stand and be her own person; to fight for what she has a right to – Freedom and equality within the marriage; the right to say ‘No’ and the right to have the letters her sister has been writing to her for years but she has never received. Celie has never had such love and compassion from anyone before Shug and they become intimate. This intimacy is spoken of with sincerity and compassion in the book. Eventually, all things work out okay for Celie, Nettie and Celie’s children but not before they all learn some very important lessons about bigotry, discrimination, sexual and racial relations, their history and our relationship with God.

Me gusta mucho el libro. Llegó en buen estado.

Subtil, moderne, éclairant et plein d'espoir.

Llegó en perfectas condiciones y en menos tiempo de lo esperado. El libro simplemente me conmovió profundamente. No pude soltarlo en toda la semana.