5 stars for creating a really unique heroine5 stars for an enjoyable, engrossing story7 stars for beautiful use of language (yeah mutherfuckers, sometimes that word is the only word that fits)I didn't put much faith in an author named 'Sapphire'. More urban fiction: ghetto girl's acrylics scratch eyes out of baby father's new crack-addicted girlfriend, I thought. (Not that I don't quite enjoy urban fiction, Zane is quite good and very spicy). I couldn't have been more wrong. The writing in the b...

There is a debate (or at least an ongoing conversation) among teachers who help college students hone their reading skills. What exactly, do you have the students read? The great works of literature, such as Homer, Emerson (yes, Vicky, I am thinking about our conversation the other night)? Do you have them read more modern works? How do you teach reading when you also have to teach reference? The best example of this is when my students were reading an essay about wetlands and thought the word c...

I can't remember exactly when I threw this book across the room for the first time - was it when Precious' mom beats her? when she steals food just to eat? when her father rapes her and she gets pregnant? when he rapes her again and she gets pregnant again and the baby has down-syndrome? when she finds out the baby has AIDS? when she finds out SHE has AIDS? when she finally learns to read and then begins writing lots of broken poetry, all of which is included in the book? I've never read a book

PUSH exceeds the limits of my understanding. I am a white male; moderately affluent; educated; healthy; and able to say that my foundation from my past has allowed me to become the person I am today. Precious Jones is none of these things. If anything, she is the antithesis of what I am.This is not her fault. Blame birth. Chance. Possibility.But what I have does not compare to what Precious Jones has. She is a fighter; a survivor of incest; HIV positive; beyond impoverished; and yet, hope burns

I encountered this when it was excerpted in the New Yorker around the time of its 1997 publication, when I was a senior in high school. Reading the New Yorker piece effectively shattered my skull, bludgeoning my brain into a tenderized and confused lump of quaking grey gristle.Push is written in the voice of an impoverished, illiterate, uncared for, despised, abused, obese, neglected, friendless, and seriously fucked teenage black girl living in 1980s Harlem -- ground zero, at that time, of raci...

Thank goodness this book was short. There was a profound moment here and there, and I get what the author was trying to achieve, but this book rose little above the category of misery porn. The entire book can be summarized in one line: bad stuff happens to Precious. And, I'm sorry, but the *constant* references to, erm, intimate smells, was nauseating.

I love this book. I hate this book. I'm a binge reader -- I can swallow whole a 900 page novel from Friday evening to Sunday afternoon. It took me 3 weeks to read this huge short book. I had to put it down when I felt how little Precious thought of herself. I had to put it down when her mother admits her role in her child's abuse. I had to put it down so I could think of ways to kill this fictional pitiful girl's fictional stepfather. He is, as the Sweet Potato Queens would call him, "A Blood Sp...

Poignant and unapologetically raw. Precious' ability to keep fighting against such dire odds both amazed and inspired me. This is a story I will never forget, and I truly look forward to the film adaptation.

Holy hell this book hits you straight in the guts right from the beginning and doesn't let up. Raw and powerful the writing style gives it an authenticity that gets to you, although it got slightly on my nerves after awhile. You immediately feel sorry for this poor girl. The abuse...too much at times, ugly awful. So glad there is a a silver lining at the end of all this with a glimmer of hope to hang onto

The story is a typical ghetto tragedy of a young uneducated girl who's raped by her father and severely abused (also raped) by her mother. She ends up having two children by her dad, one of which who has Downs Syndrome. She also sadly ends up contacting the HIV virus from him as well. I feel the author took the easy way out in making the book too shockingly vulgar, which is the only thing I felt held this novel together. The writer definitely tried too hard in that aspect of the story, and I was...

I was going to write up a Celebrity Death Match between Sapphire and Dave Pelzer for the title of Most Abused Child Ever, but on second thoughts, silence is golden.One last thing. I remember reading Push and watching The Wire during the same week had a strange effect on me which for a white English male was not a good thing. A work colleague asked me if Push was any good and I barked at him bitch be messin my mind and shit .

I honestly doubt I would have picked this novel up had it not been recommended to me or (as was the case) required as part of a class. While I enjoy "coming of age" stories and stories of overcoming hardship, the overarching themes and situations in this book are off-putting to say the least.The professor made it very clear that the first chapter (~40 pages) was going to be very difficult to read for a number of reasons. Some students were put off by the spelling which was initially a little str...

This is one of those books that's so real (hell, I taught a kid like this at an alternative school in Chicago) it'll never get into a high school curriculum. It's that good, that authentic, that "dangerous". I avoid the hype around vogue books and authors, but this one delivered the goods.The language is definitely vulgar, violent and hyper-sexual, but the voice...my goodness! I'd never compare a book to "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn", but it is ironic that Sapphire mentions Twain's great book...

Loved this story!I read this book years ago when it first came out and as a teenager I didn't really appreciate the importance of this story. Even seeing the movie didn't change my outlook. But now, as a mature adult retreading this novel created a whole new experience. The grit included in this story is enough to bring tears to any eye. I must watch the movie again...