Week 1

I am currently reading the book “Push” by Sapphire and all I can say is wow.  This is really a great read and I highly recommend it.  It is about a young 16-year-old girl named Precious, living in Harlem, NY struggling with the life she is living and the things and people around her.  She has trouble learning in school and cooperating with her teachers because she is illiterate.  She has been held back a few times and finally gets kicked out of her school because she acts out a lot and she had a baby and is pregnant with another baby.  You may think this is crazy but it gets more intense as you keep reading.  

She has been raped by her father several times and had her father’s baby.  This is the most shocking part of the book so far; the fact that she keeps getting raped by her father and no one will do anything about it.  Her mom thinks she is a whore and that she “stole her man.” Precious’s mom is clearly a fucking idiot.  First of all she doesn’t acknowledge the fact that what is happening here is clearly not Precious’s fault and that the police she be notified, secondly her mom beats her for “stealing her man.”  Reading this book you come to realize that there are some dumb fucking people out there.

After Precious gets kicked out of her school, her teacher shows up at her door and tells her about this secondary school.  Precious eventually decides to try it out and ends up liking it a lot.  Her teacher Ms. Rain is very nice to the 8 or so students in the class, and really wants to help each and every one of them learn.  Precious progresses a lot throughout the class; she learns how to write pretty decently.  I think this part of the book is very touching.  She grows to appreciate things more in life rather than being depressed and angry about everything.  She has her second baby and decides to change her life.  She moves out of her mom’s house to live in a halfway house.  Personally, I think it is great for her that she is taking care of her baby and going to school at the same time.  I hope to see a lot more progression from Precious toward the end of the book.