Push by Sapphire

“Push,” the titular touchstone of this novel, strikes at definitive moments like the low, penetrating tone of a hammered gong. Push. Push. Puuuuusssssssshhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

This heartbreaking novel is told from the point of view of Precious Jones, a sixteen year old girl living on her own after having her second child by her own father. She tells her story in graphic, raw, honest detail, and it is the story of a life you can’t believe a person could survive through. Yet Precious, illiterate and hanging on to sanity by a thread, survives with dignity and sensitivity. She survives by pushing. Pushing her self up a steep hill, pushing through the static and interference of her infected memories, to find a life of her own.

This book is difficult to read. It is, as one reviewer describes it, merciless. It will not spare you. I became depressed while reading it, deeply sad at the brutality humans can inflict upon one another, horrified at what some parents can do to their own children. At the same time, I was deeply moved by this positively regal young woman. Precious? Regal? Well, something about her is regal. She carries herself through a tortured existence with the innate conviction that she has a life worth living, worth developing. She never loses sight of her desire to be educated. She does not give up. Push. This insistence on living feels regal to me. Strange. What do you think? How would you describe Precious?

This is the story of one woman’s determination to become educated. At its core it is a story of survival through learning, through community, through sharing experiences, through telling your story, your heroic journey. The book ends with a series of stories, a “book” that Precious’ class creates. These stories are the stories of young women with none of life’s advantages, girls who are beaten down in every way, yet find ways back to themselves, and to independence. I would like to tell everyone to read this book, but I fear that some might not be able to quite take it. The language and scenes can be rough, but sometimes life is rough, and though we want to avoid pain, we cannot always do so. In fact, it is often valuable to face pain, another’s pain; this is the way to develop real compassion and peace. Likewise, when we are in deep personal pain of our own, it is often a relief to find a simpatico story of some kind, a story that can show one way out of desperation and traps. When we feel like a fellow traveler on the hard road of life, rather than a lonely ghost, it can give us strength to continue on. Push.