Push (novel)

Claireece Precious Jones is an obese, illiterate 16-year-old girl who lives in Harlem with her abusive mother Mary. Precious is a few months pregnant with her second child, the product of her father raping her; he is also the father of her first child (who has Down syndrome). When her school discovers the pregnancy, it is decided that she should attend an alternative school. Precious is furious, but the counselor later visits her home and convinces her to enter an alternative school, located in the Hotel Theresa, called Higher Education Alternative Each One Teach One. Despite her mother's insistence that she apply for welfare, Precious enrolls in the school. She meets her teacher, Ms. Blu Rain, and fellow students Rhonda, Jermaine, Rita, Jo Ann, and Consuelo. All of the girls come from troubled backgrounds. Ms. Rain's class is a pre-GED class for young women who are below an eighth-grade level in reading and writing and therefore are unprepared for high school-level courses. They start off by learning the basics of phonics and vocabulary building. Despite their academic deficits, Ms. Rain ignites a passion in her students for literature and writing. She believes that the only way to learn to write is to write every day. Each girl is required to keep a journal. Ms. Rain reads their entries and provides feedback and advice. By the time the novel ends, the women have created an anthology of autobiographical stories called "LIFE STORIES – Our Class Book" appended to the book. The works of classic African-American writers such as Audre Lorde, Alice Walker and Langston Hughes are inspirational for the students. Precious is particularly moved by The Color Purple.

While in the hospital giving birth to son Abdul Jamal Louis Jones, Precious tells a social worker that her first child is living with her grandmother. The confession leads to Precious' mother having her welfare taken away. When Precious returns home with Abdul, her enraged mother chases her out of the house. Homeless and alone, she first passes a night at the armory, then turns to Ms. Rain, who uses all of her resources to get Precious into a halfway house with childcare. Her new environment provides her with the stability and support to continue with school. The narrative prose, told from Precious' voice, continually improves in terms of grammar and spelling, and is even peppered with imagery and similes. Precious has taken up poetry, and is eventually awarded the Mayor's office's literacy award for outstanding progress. The accomplishment boosts her spirits.

As her attitude changes and her confidence grows, Precious thinks about having a boyfriend, and a real relationship with someone near her age who attracts her interest. Her only sexual experience thus far has been the rape and sexual abuse by her mother and father. As she's trying to move beyond her traumatic childhood and distance herself from her parents, her mother turns up to announce that her father has died from AIDS. Testing verifies that Precious is HIV positive, but her children are not. Her classmate Rita encourages Precious to join a support group, as well as an HIV-positive group. The meetings provide a source of support and friendship for Precious as well as the revelation that her color and socioeconomic background weren't necessarily the cause of her abuse. Women of all ages and backgrounds attend the meetings. The book concludes with no specific fate outlined for Precious; the author leaving her future undetermined.

Critics have gone in both directions as far as their opinions of the style in which Push is written. Some consider "the harrowing story line [to be] exaggerated," saying that it doesn't seem realistic to "saddle one fictional character with so many problems straight from today's headlines" (Glenn). Others have stated that while the dialect is problematic, Precious herself is believable because she "speaks in a darting stream of consciousness of her days in an unexpectedly evocative fashion" (Mahoney).

In 2011, Sapphire published a semi-sequel, The Kid. It follows the life of Precious' son Abdul from the age of nine to 19. Precious herself has died following complications from HIV, but was accepted to college before her death.

• Precious, the film adaptation

• Bennett, Tegan. "Sapphire shapes a gem that is Precious". The Sydney Morning Herald, 18 January 1997, late ed.: 12.
• Freeman-Greene, Suzy. "Hard beat of Harlem; Books". The Age, 21 September 1996, late ed.: 7.
• Harmon, William et al. A Handbook to Literature. 9th edn. NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003.
• Harrell, Shante' L. D. et al. "Ramona Lofton (Sapphire)". VG: Voices from the Gaps. 2006. University of Minnesota. 16 April 2009.
• Kakutani, Michiko. "BOOK OF THE TIMES; A Cruel World, Endless Until a Teacher Steps In". The New York Times, 14 June 1996, late edn: 29.
• Powers, William. "Sapphire's Raw Gem; Some Say Her Novel Exploits Suffering. She Says They're Reading It All Wrong". The Washington Post, 6 August 1996: B1.

• The Official Film Website
• Interview about Precious with the cast and director, as well as Sapphire herself, at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival:

• Sundance Interview Part 1
• Sundance Interview Part 2
• Sundance Interview Part 3