I read this a while ago, and I'm registering and wild releasing for poops and giggles. As I recall, this was one of those "Had to read the book before seeing the movie" things.

The book was ok. In pursuit of a high artistic concept, the book comes across as a little ham-fisted. I mean, we get it: Literacy is important. Parents shouldn't rape their children. AIDS is a terrible disease. The rhetoric of people like Farrakhan is appealing to oppressed and marginalized African Americans because it makes them feel empowered. Real empowerment comes from overcoming obstacles to achieve your goals.

The movie was ok. The movie cut a number of things from the book, to make the overall story seem more believable and Precious a more sympathetic character.

I can't emphasize this enough though: This *is* one of those occasions where reading the book is actually important. The movie was a tour de force. It was critically acclaimed. I think it won Oscars. But the book is written in first-person narrative as a journal by Precious. The movie can't "translate" the very literal transformation Precious undergoes throughout the course of the novel. The reader actually witnesses Precious become literate, and then sees her become empowered by that very literacy. The movie instead comes across as sort of a slice of life story, because it can't actually show you this transformation in the same way words on a page can. And in that way, the movie really winds up missing the point of the book.

Clearing the dead weight from my bookshelves. Donated.