http://www.nytimes.com/1996/06/14/books/books-of-the-times-a-cruel-world-endless-until-a-teacher-steps-in.html

This review which was published in the New York Times in 1996, starts by comparing it with the American greats Catcher in the Rye and The Color Purple. This is appropriate, as I feel that Push should be allowed to take a place amongst American classics, as it gives a voice to a part of the population that doesn't often get a literary voice - poverty-stricken African Americans.

The writer of the review, Michiko Kakutani, does briefly mention the struggles that the character Precious has with her race - "In these daydreams, she is thin, not fat; white, not black; loved, not mocked." - but this is the only mention that is given to it, despite a lot of the book being dedicated to Precious' feelings that if she were white, her life would be better. If the writer of the review were a white American, it would be tempting to surmise that the subject was too difficult a one to write about, but Michiko Kakutani is a Japanese American. Kakutani herself has suffered slurs over her race - having  been called a "one-woman Kamikaze", "Pearl Harbour II" and her name was deemed "too hard to pronounce" in the television show Sex and the City. The fact that Michiko Kakutani skips over Precious' initial unhappiness with her race suggests that perhaps she feels that it would be too challenging to write about, as a lot of her readers would be white Americans. This suggests that the issue of race is still a touchy one in America.

The review sees Push as being a positive book overall, calling it "a story of female empowerment and triumph." I agree with this, as whatever Precious has thrown her way and the struggles she faces, she always keeps going. This is a very American ideal and is seen throughout its history and themes in its literature. Although at the end of the book, Precious is HIV-positive and still struggling with life, she has achieved her dream of learning to read and write and is on her way to achieving her GED. I found this an intriguing similarity to the book Ragged Dick, in which the 'American Dream' is represented as achieving respectability rather than wealth and fame. Precious has found the self-worth she wanted at the beginning of the book and has her own piece of the 'American Dream'.

Despite the poverty-stricken life that Precious leads, Kakutani seems sympathetic to it and does not see the novel as portraying a negative view of poor African Americans. She writes in the review that it has a "lyricism", suggesting that even though life for poor African Americans is hard, there is still some worth and beauty to it. She also writes that the reader comes to feel "enormous sympathy" for Precious, further showing that she sees the book as showing a positive light. Sympathy could not be felt for a character who readers feel is only getting what they deserve.

Towards the end of the review the author, Sapphire, comes in for some criticism. Kakutani writes that the story has a "blunt ideological subtext". She writes that Sapphire is using her character to prove a point about men and white social workers. I think that Kakutani is forgetting that Sapphire is trying to portray the opinions that some poor, female African Americans might hold. She might be avoiding the issue because, again, it is one that is too difficult to face up to.