Read about the other entries on the list.Shug Avery (The Color Purple, by Alice Walker)
It’s hard to define the relationship between Shug Avery and Celie, the book’s narrator. They’re friends, lovers, confidantes, family, and kindred spirits. For two who are so close, they couldn’t be more different. Compared to the perpetually abused and neglected Celie, Shug is as independent and confident as a woman can be. She is fearless, saying and doing whatever she wants and refusing to kowtow to the restrictions that race, sexuality, or gender placed upon other women of her time. It’s these differences, in part, that draw the two together, as well as allow Shug to grasp the gravity of Celie’s situation with her abusive husband. Shug not only talks Celie out of killing him, she also challenges the way Celie views God. The possibility that God could be anything other than a belligerent white man is a radical idea for Celie, but one that gives her the strength she has so desperately needed to finally claim her life as her own.
The Color Purple is among Andy McSmith's top ten books of the 1980s and Sophie Ward's six best books.
--Marshal Zeringue