Push

Book Description

Critics

• Precious by Sapphire

  Recently adapted for film, Precious is the fictional diary of Claireece Precious Jones. Obese, illiterate and sexually abused by both her parents, Precious gives birth, aged 12, to a "Down sinder" daughter, and is expelled from school when her second ... (read full critics)

  guardian.co.uk published on Fri, 24 Sep 2010

7 Reviews

• 2 people find this helpful

  

  Saw the movie first; read the book second. The movie was heartwrenching, but definitely easier to watch than it was to read the book. The movie did a good job of showing only small doses of certain horrors like the rape, but the book is explicit and raw and incredibly sad. I can understand how it mi ... (continue)

  Saw the movie first; read the book second. The movie was heartwrenching, but definitely easier to watch than it was to read the book. The movie did a good job of showing only small doses of certain horrors like the rape, but the book is explicit and raw and incredibly sad. I can understand how it might be hard for some to read a whole novel in Precious's broken English, but it felt so very real to me. I also liked the inclusion of the class "book" at the very end - so great to hear each girl's unique story. I liked it but wouldn't give it 4 stars because I don't know if I could ever happily recommend it to someone - it is just too hard to read. Not a pleasant story, but one that needs to be told.

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  kmccormi said on Nov 30, 2009 about the Audio Cassette edition | Add your feedback

• 

  This is what my family would call a black book. Before anyone reads it they should know that there is no happy ending or sad ending. The ending just is.

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  Vale Jane Vesper Eloquim said on Sep 24, 2011 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

• 

  “Don’t you fall now—
  For I’se still goin’, honey,
  I’se still climbin’,
  And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”

  No crystal stair for Claireece Precious Jones. Raped by her father from whom she gets two children, the first one affected by Down Syndrome, and makes her HIV positive. Also sexually ... (continue)

  “Don’t you fall now—
  For I’se still goin’, honey,
  I’se still climbin’,
  And life for me ain’t been no crystal stair.”

  No crystal stair for Claireece Precious Jones. Raped by her father from whom she gets two children, the first one affected by Down Syndrome, and makes her HIV positive. Also sexually molested and beaten by her mother who thinks she stole her husband and forces her to eat so much that she weights more than 200 pounds. Precious feels invisible to everyone, her head constantly swollen with thoughts about her past, with the life of the supposed skinny white girl she’d like to be. Precious is sixteen and illitterate. Then Precious meets a teacher who pushes her to win her life back. When I first read the plot I thought reading this book would just be disturbing but it just wasn’t: first of all, it allowed me to relate to every step of Precious’ story in a really empathic way; everything we think we cannot understand is easy to get when put in a new perspective and context. It showed me how people you never met can support you in ways we can never imagine even if they might need support themselves. Last but not least, it encouraged me to push as well because, no matter if our lives are screwed up as Precious’ or less than that, it’s never too late to push yourself beyond our limits and take them back. About this I’d like to remark that, after reading the book, I thought that the movie should have been called Push as well because that’s the central theme of the story.

  Niente scale di cristallo per Claireece Precious Jones. Violentata dal padre, dal quale ha due bambini, la prima dei quali affetta da sindrome di Down. In più la rende sieropositiva. Molestata sessualmente e picchiata dalla madre che pensa di essere stata derubata del marito da sua figlia e la forza a mangiare talmente tanto che Precious arriva a pesare più di 90 chili. Precious si sente invisibile, la sua testa continuamente appesantita da ricordi del passato e dalla vita di una ragazza bianca e magra, amata da tutti, la vita che vorrebbe. Leggendo la trama per la prima volta, ho pensato che la lettura mi avrebbe soltanto turbato ma non è andata così: innanzitutto, mi ha permesso di relazionarmi empaticamente passo per passo alla storia della protagonista; tutto quello che pensiamo di non poter capire è facile da comprendere se messo nella giusta prospettiva e nell’appropriato contesto. Persone sconosciute possono esserti di supporto pur avendone esse stesse bisogno. Infine, ma non per importanza, mi ha incoraggiato a “spingere” perché, a dispetto del fatto che le nostre vite possano essere disastrate tanto quanto o meno di quella di Precious, non è mai troppo tardi per spingerci oltre i nostri stessi limiti e riprendercele. A tal proposito vorrei dire che, dopo aver letto il libro, non sono più molto d’accordo con la scelta di intitolare il film “Precious”. Si sarebbe dovuto chiamare “Push” perché questo è il tema centrale della storia.

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  Unworldly Northman said on May 26, 2011 | 2 feedbacks

• 

  the book is much better than the movie

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  Erica Autry said on Oct 24, 2010 | Add your feedback

• 

  Sapphire really did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of her protagonist, Precious. Not only do we get a big glimpse inside of her world, but we're led to feel her pain, know her love, and take pride in her achievements as she grows. In Sapphire's writing style, I saw glimpses of Faulkner's ... (continue)

  Sapphire really did an amazing job of capturing the spirit of her protagonist, Precious. Not only do we get a big glimpse inside of her world, but we're led to feel her pain, know her love, and take pride in her achievements as she grows. In Sapphire's writing style, I saw glimpses of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury, Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye, and a small touch of other various authors; I'll definitely be looking for more books by this author and more writers like this author.

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  oleander said on Dec 21, 2009 about the Others edition | Add your feedback

• 

  I'm Not Surprised by Oprah's Endorsement but Tyler Perry's?

  The book turned Sundance Film Favorite, is ideally and in essence a story that offers a good message about overcoming obstacles and rising above our circumstances and situations to achieve our goals and to become more than we're expected to be. However, you have to be able to stomach the narrators ... (continue)

  The book turned Sundance Film Favorite, is ideally and in essence a story that offers a good message about overcoming obstacles and rising above our circumstances and situations to achieve our goals and to become more than we're expected to be. However, you have to be able to stomach the narrators awful grammar and spelling (Precious, the protagonist/narrator, is a 16-going-on-17 year-old who is illiterate amongst other things) in addition to the enumerable accounts of familial abuse of all sorts-physical, sexual, emotional, mental-at the hands of the narrator's biological parents.

  It's just the kind of story that Oprah loves to shove in our faces and spend two episodes of her talk show (3 days on her radio broadcast) discussing with Gail and a handful of other individuals whose opinions only matter to Oprah's flock of housewife and non hetero male following.

  I digress.

  Like I said the message of the book is a good one that needs to be told, I'm just not sure I like the soap box the author stood on to shout it.

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  Nette said on Oct 25, 2009 about the Audio Cassette edition | Add your feedback

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Book Details

• Rating:
  (40)
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• English Books
• Hardcover 192 Pages
• Edition: 1st ed
• ISBN-10: 0679446265
• ISBN-13: 9780679446262
• Publisher: Knopf
• Pub date: Jun 11, 1996
• Dimensions: 1290 mm x 839 mm x 129 mm Just how big is that?
• Also available as: Paperback, Audio Cassette, School & Library Binding and Others
• In other languages: other languages Livres Français, Libros en Español, llibres en català, Libri Italiani

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