Purple Violet Squish

by David Wilkerson

Hard Cover; Fair; Dust Jacket - Acceptable; Fair Hard Cover; Fair DJ. Book has some writing inside in marker and pen. DJ is well worn with small tears and stains.

Genres: Theology

96 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1969

About the author

David Ray Wilkerson was an American Christian evangelist, best known for his book The Cross and the Switchblade. He was the founder of the addiction recovery program Teen Challenge, and founding pastor of the non-denominational Times Square Church in New York.

Wilkerson's widely distributed sermons, such as "A Call to Anguish", are known for being direct and frank against apostasy and serious about making the commitment to obey Jesus' teachings. He emphasized such Christian beliefs as God's holiness and righteousness, God's love toward humans and especially Christian views of Jesus. Wilkerson tried to avoid categorizing Christians into distinct groups according to the denomination to which they belong.

Wilkerson was killed in a car crash in Texas on April 27, 2011.

Reviews

[Ty · Rating 5 out of 5]

great for a good laugh. ridiculous stories about the dangers of lsd and the hippie culture.

[Cam · Rating 3 out of 5]

hilariously alarmist look at 60s counterculture movements; really compellingly written.

[Catfantastic · Rating 1 out of 5]

I feel vaguely guilty giving such a low rating to a book that made me giggle so much, but I don't think any of the humour was intentional. You might say Wilkerson's dire warnings about the satanic dangers of love beads, rock music, political activism, dungarees, and ambiguously gendered haircuts really haven't aged well. On the other hand, I can imagine that when it was first published it was pure poison that did a lot of harm, so aging into hilariously quaint hand-wringing and pearl-clutching might be an improvement.

[Linda Lahti milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

Old book... man oh man there were some strange people awhile back..

[Cilla Newham · Rating 1 out of 5]

David Wilkerson may have put his name to Purple Violet Squish but he didn't write it anymore than he wrote The Cross and the Switchblade which happens to be a tragic and disreputable hoax, written with the help of ghost writers John and Elizabeth Sherrill. One should also question God's Smuggler, and The Hiding Place, supposedly authored respectively by Brother Andrew and Corrie Ten Boom; the Sherrill's names are also there. For the truth about The Cross and the Switchblade read Brooklyn Rumble by David J Van Pelt.

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

While there are many hysteric and hilarious accounts of lifestyles and attitudes of the times, there is some genuinely intelligent points sandwiched between the nagging. It is kinda lame and this dude is just as brainwashed as the longhairs he cries about but I was a fun read, great quotes throughout!!!!

[Sam Phillips · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an interesting point of view. Though it felt like it was written with the expectation that the world is black and white.

[Emily Butler · Rating 1 out of 5]

Like another reviewer has said- this one's good for a laugh. This is the perfect example of a book I would never have come across if I didn't work in a library. I found it while weeding, read the first page out of curiosity and couldn't put it down. Until I got to a chapter called "The Shims." Then I put it down.

[Creative A · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Purple-Violet Squish" is a nonfiction book written by David Wilkerson, the guy who wrote "The Cross and the Switchblade." It's an interesting look at the 80's generation. Wilkerson manages to get you inside the head of the kids who got caught up in the hippie movement. There aren't as many personal stories as in "Switchblade," but it's enough to make the time period feel real and raw.

Each chapter covers a different basic group of people, from hippies, to wagumps, to squares. First Wilkerson defines what makes each group and then goes on to explain what kind of lifestyle they have. He points out the difference between what these people claim they have/need/want, and how things really are for them when it all gets nitty gritty. Each chapter ends with a slightly preachy bit about what the Bible says about such beliefs, and God's ways of filling these needs.

The book has a broad, sweeping feel to it. You learn about the overtones and undertones of the times and Wilkerson touches on the things that defined it, like sex, drugs, and music. I always had a basic idea of what the 80's was like. This book sort of gave me a bigger picture view, while also honing in on the personal. Good read, a tad dry, but short enough to get over any annoyances.

[John · Rating 3 out of 5]

I remember that this book elicited violent reactions both pro and con in me when I first read it.
Wilkerson is trying to turn the hearts of young people away from the destructive cultural pnenomenon that were captivating them at the time.
My one problem with Wilkerson is that he lumped the Jesus People in general and Christan Rock in particular to the more sinister influences of the hippie movement and the harder secular rock of the time. He had no room in his beliefs for 'redeemed rock'.

[Roderick · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this book way back when I was in the 7th grade; living in a small, naive Indiana town. At the time it was revolutionary; not so much now from outside the bubble. However, the book does provide the reader with a keen insight; not of it's topic, but of its author and his culture.

[Carl]

"LSD hippie cults are springing up all over the world. It has become a psychic revolt that even affects theology. Hippie 'acid' heads and those involved with transcendental meditation have had visions of 'God.' Their descriptions are as bizarre as something from the devil's handbook. 'God is a bare-chested creature with wings who carries a serpent entwined around a cross–a fire-breathing mountain who rises out from the earth spewing volcanos and spraying rainbows across the universe–a brilliant red ball of fire bathed in blue fog with a single eye that pierces your heart and makes it explode into millions of pieces that float through eternity–a tunnel into a cosmos of suspended nothingness where colors and designs kiss the soul and eternal joy is pulling God apart at the seams with a cord that has no end.'" (p. 22)