Scott's Reviews > Push

"Ms Rain love 'The Color Purple' too but say realism has its virtues too. Izm, smizm! Sometimes I wanna tell Ms Rain shut up with all the IZM stuff. But she my teacher so I don't tell her shut up. I don't know what 'realism' mean but I do know what REALITY is and it's a motherf***er, lemme tell you." -- seventeen year-old student Claireece 'Precious' Jones, on page 83

I can see how Push is a divisive novella - yes, it's often harsh, crude, and even manipulative, plus with the understandable lack of any 'happily ever after' conclusion there is just not a whole lot of joy (although there are occasionally effective moments of humor) to be gained by reading it. I mean, a story about the adolescent Precious suffering years of sexual abuse from her father (bearing two children by him) as well as continual mental/physical abuse from her mother would clearly make some readers want to run to the hills. Yet it DID work for me - other than the teenage protagonist's unenlightened thoughts and views (her indelicate comments on persons with different sexual orientations and/or from other races were often crass or uncomfortable, but likely also probable given her very troubled and sheltered background) her succinct story was an involving one, and I especially liked that 1.) the narrative showed that the title character was making steady progress with her reading and writing skills after receiving some specialized learning support and 2.) the respective teacher and social worker characters of Ms Rain and Ms Weiss made a positive impact in this teenager's life by offering her encouragement, and were not just uncaring cogs in a damaged system that has filled them with too much cynicism. There aren't many sure things in this world, so sometimes it really means something to cheer on a fictional character trying to better themselves and/or potentially escape from the horrible set of cards they were dealt from life's stacked deck.