I confess that I rarely read fiction in hardcover (exception- the entire Harry Potter series!) I just have so many great books to read that I figure I can always wait and see if it gets a hearty welcome. Similarly, I rarely see a Broadway show until I can guage if it's for New Yorkers or tourists. (I am still really a tourist here, after just six years in the Big City (as my neice calls it), but like to think I have New Yorker cultural tastes!)
The Help, a new novel out in hardback by Kathryn Stockett, is an exception. I recommend it immediately!
The characters are so intense and so succulent that you won't want to put this book down. Even the really bitchy socialite that runs the women's league with a disgusting and iron hand is deliciously written. I read it in one big gulp and then when back to page one and read it again, more slowly, and savored it. The writing is easy and simple, but extremely powerful.
Stockett tells a story of the black maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960's. That might sound trite at first, but the characters quickly come to life and you see through their eyes how hardened and cruel prejudice turns into self-protecting egotism. In a way, it seems these attitudes become logical, pleasant even, to those who practice them.
I also love that the maids are keeping the whole town running - the white homes and parties as well as the black homes and church fairs, too. How typical that the most under privileged women of a community are the ones we can't do without!
I read this book with such engagement and joy that several times I clapped my hands - much to the surprise and amusement of people sitting next to me in a cafe. "That must be one heck of a book," the gentleman at the next table says with raised eyebrows, while his wife gives me a look of pure annoyance. I was glad in this case to have the pleasant company of my book!
Don't get me wrong - this is not a book about a happy situation. Not everyone gets what they deserve - although finally, at the end, the nasty one gets hers. (Thank goodness.)
It's a story of struggle and self fulfillment and lack of opportunity and frustration and battles against the establishment. It's also incredibly human and warm and inspiring. Under similar pressure and lack of support, I wonder if I would do half as well as the maids. Probably not.
Thanks to my friend Gene who told me about this book while we were wandering in a cool bookstore in Brooklyn. If you are in a book club - read this one soon!
Get The Help, but Kathryn Stockett.
I've heard nothing but good things about this book! It's been on my list of books I must read for a while now - I think I'll move it up on the list and read it next. Thanks to you, my list keeps getting longer and longer and longer... :)
Posted by: WendyC | May 26, 2010 at 10:08 AM