In the first few pages I was asking myself why I hadn't read this sooner. It runs you through the whole gamut of emotions. I started out feeling literally sick reading the child Celie's account of being raped by her father, and went through nail-biting anticipation, anger, sadness, and joy before the relatively-short book was over. If you crack this book open you will understand why it's such an award-winning classic. The way Walker is able to capture the nuance of characters' personalities and relationships as they age and grow, all in a format of letter-style segments in Celie's dialect, is amazing. Into it all is woven larger questions and observations about the meaning of religion and faith, as well as changing roles and relationships between men and women, white and black Americans, and black Americans and black Africans.