![]() ![]() ![]() True to this belief, Sapphire's second novel, The Kid, is even more unflinching. ![]() "In Michigan one woman held up the book, trembling, saying: 'I've never heard of anything like this in my life.' On the other side of the room there was a psychiatrist who said: 'I hear it every day.'" "There are people who are really horrified," she says. Sapphire dismisses critics who complained it was unrealistically brutal, saying this reaction reflects audiences' ignorance about the ubiquity of abuse. ![]() It was also one of the few times the white, male bastion of the Oscars was stormed by a film with so many vivid roles for women, of all colours, sizes and ages. Nominated for six Oscars, including best actress for the young unknown Gabourey Sidibe, it also featured excellent performances from musician Mo'Nique, who won an Oscar as the abuse-colluding mother, and Mariah Carey as a social worker, prompting the classic line from Precious, "I mean, what are you? Are you Italian? Are you some kind of black?" But in 2009 the film adaptation, Precious, promoted heavily by Oprah Winfrey, catapaulted it into the mainstream. The book owed its initial success to its use by social workers, abuse survivors' groups and psychologists treating victims of rape and incest. When her debut novel Push came out 15 years ago, readers were enthralled and appalled by protagonist Precious Jones, the New York girl who was abused by her father and failed by the system – only to fight back, educate herself and transcend her background. ![]()
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