Push: A Novel (Paperback)

~ (Author) "I was left back when I was twelve because I had a baby for my fahver..." (more)
Key Phrases: white bitch, gonna write, Miz Rain, Little Mongo, Precious Jones (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Claireece Precious Jones endures unimaginable hardships in her young life. Abused by her mother, raped by her father, she grows up poor, angry, illiterate, fat, unloved and generally unnoticed. So what better way to learn about her than through her own, halting dialect. That is the device deployed in the first novel by poet and singer Sapphire. "Sometimes I wish I was not alive," Precious says. "But I don't know how to die. Ain' no plug to pull out. 'N no matter how bad I feel my heart don't stop beating and my eyes open in the morning." An intense story of adversity and the mechanisms to cope with it.

Precious is now a major motion picture based on the novel Push by Sapphire, starring Gabourey 'Gabby' Sidibe, Mo'Nique, Paula Patton, Mariah Carey, and Lenny Kravitz. Enjoy these images from the film, and click the thumbnails to see larger images.

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--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Publishers Weekly

With this much anticipated first novel, told from the point of view of an illiterate, brutalized Harlem teenager, Sapphire (American Dreams), a writer affiliated with the Nuyorican poets, charts the psychic damage of the most ghettoized of inner-city inhabitants. Obese, dark-skinned, HIV-positive, bullied by her sexually abusive mother, Clareece, Precious Jones is, at the novel's outset, pregnant for the second time with her father's child. (Precious had her first daughter at 12, named Little Mongo, "short for Mongoloid Down Sinder, which is what she is; sometimes what I feel I is. I feel so stupid sometimes. So ugly, worth nuffin.") Referred to a pilot program by an unusually solicitous principal, Precious comes under the experimental pedagogy of a lesbian miracle worker named, implausibly enough, Blue Rain. Under her angelic mentorship, Precious, who has never before experienced real nurturing, learns to voice her long suppressed feelings in a journal. As her language skills improve, she finds sustenance in writing poetry, in friendships and in support groups-one for "insect" survivors and one for HIV-positive teens. It is here that Sapphire falters, as her slim and harrowing novel, with its references to Harriet Tubman, Langston Hughes and The Color Purple (a parallel the author hints at again and again), becomes a conventional, albeit dark and unresolved, allegory about redemption. The ending, composed of excerpts from the journals of Precious's classmates, lends heightened realism and a wider scope to the narrative, but also gives it a quality of incompleteness. Sapphire has created a remarkable heroine in Precious, whose first-person street talk is by turns blisteringly savvy, rawly lyrical, hilariously pig-headed and wrenchingly vulnerable. Yet that voice begs to be heard in a larger novel of more depth and complexity. 150,000 first printing; first serial to the New Yorker; audio rights to Random; foreign rights sold to England, France, Germany, Holland, Portugal and Brazil.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 192 pages
• Publisher: Vintage (April 29, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679766758
• ISBN-13: 978-0679766759
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (375 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

153 of 157 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Jessi's Review of Push, April 28, 2000

By	Jessica Gilbert - See all my reviews

I must admit, when I first began reading Push, I was a little uncomfortable with the narrative perspective because it was so blunt in its descriptions. However, as hard of a time as I had with reading this text, I had an even harder time putting it down. Sapphire's novel forced me to face the reality of the verbally and sexually abusive life that Precious Jones was forced to live in. Unfortunately, Precious is not alone and Sapphire took the first step in acknowleding this problem by putting it into words, even though the words make some uncomfortable. Once I started reading and listening to Precious, I could not let go. Precious Jones is a sixteen year old girl, verbally and physically abused by her mother and sexually abused by her father. She gives birth to two children, her own father also being father of her children. However, this book is not only an attack on the abuse that occurs within a family. Sapphire also places blame on the educational system that sits back while their students are deprived of educational advancement because of their situations at home. There are so many children, like Precious, who want to learn but come to believe that they are dumb because no one took the time to examine the problem closer. I hurt for Precious because she had no self esteem, how could she when her father stripped everything from her, including her virginity, before she was even out of elementary school. I could not put the book down without knowing how she was going to rise above her circumstances. I got so wrapped up in this book, believing in Precious and everything she went through. Sapphire's book involved so many emotions and was so inspiring that I believe no student or teacher should go without reading this book.

64 of 68 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Book!, December 16, 1999

By	Maurice Williams "mauricewms" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Push (Hardcover)

Push. Thrust. Drive. Ram. Move forward. Set in motion. Press on. It all encompasses the very essence of what it is to struggle. There are two ways of exerting force, one is by pushing down, the other by pulling up. Sapphire certainly pushed the envelope with this first novel. These women tapped into their last reserves of strength to move forward under brutal and bizarre circumstances. They have collected what little is left of themselves, pulled together in the spirit of love and compassion, and decided to press on. This novel is a powerful display of perseverance, and determination. Read this book and know that whenever you feel like you just can't keep going, all you need to do is Push a little harder, pull someone with you, and keep moving on.

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PUSH: A Stunning First Novel, June 16, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Push (Hardcover)

To call "Push", the first novel by noted African American poet and singer Sapphire, shocking or devastating would not adequately describe its incessant power.

The book is basically a diary that is both stark and realistic, as we are offered a look into Clareece Precious Jones' world: pregnant for the second time by her step-father, mentally and sexually abused by her own mother and neglected by an overwhelmed school system that makes it all too easy for a 16-year old from Harlem to fall through the cracks.

In the beginning the book may cause many readers to backtrack to get a true understanding of what they have just read. I would implore all to keep at it for "Push" drips with realism -- a realism that is all too often ignored or disbelieved. Luckily for Precious, her salvation comes at the hands of one dedicated teacher from an alternative school and her fellow students with whom she quickly bonds.

Sapphire, herself a former reading teacher, was clearly influenced by real-life people and that is conveyed strongly throughout the novel as all of the characters -- major and minor -- are complete and three-dimensional.

A very brief novel, "Push" does not offer a storybook ending and may even disappoint many with what they see as an incomplete ending. However, it concludes realistically as we AND Precious will have to wait and see what the future holds.