PUSH

last friday i went to windsor to spend some quality alone time and indeed i actually realised what a testament to my inner geek it was when i couldn't bring myself to part with any money for clothes yet i made one trip to waterstones and spent £40 on novels.
i ate lunch in town and started reading PUSH by sapphire. it only caught my interest because i had wanted to see the new film "precious" and i noticed it was based on this book. so i sat down in EAT with my innocent water and for the first time since probably last summer when i read Atonement by Ian McEwan i became completely and totally lost in the story.
i'm really not a fan of misery lit (i believe that some people go through some horrendous things and can't even bring themselves to seek help or counselling so i don't really believe in making money from it) however this story is not autobiographical. you do however get the impression that it couldn't of been written without some kind of background knowledge (creating even more mystery around the author who goes only by "Sapphire").
from the first page the story is gritty and shocking, written in first person which really magnifies your empathy for the main character Precious. it is also written phonestically, which i believe can sometimes really work and sometimes can't (when i read "a million little pieces" by james frey it was a little hard to get used to the lack of punctuation but once you got your head round it it really strengthened your knowledge of the character. "trainspotting", however- by Irvine Welsh- i had more trouble with.)
another thing i noticed about the book which sets it poles apart from your standard "misery lit" (a child called "it", other anomalies "mummy wasn't there" etc wah wah wah) is it never fished for sympathy. it was very straight talking, to the point and concise. i loved it, i really couldn't put it down. i have been looking for a long time for a book to really get lost in. so i'd definitely reccomend this one.

i'll tell you about the other books i bought once i've read them and i might write a bit about some of my favorites as well.

i'm such a loser. x