I am hesitant to publish this review of The Help because I fear it will not be considered a positive review. I am by no means adamantly against this book but all my feelings are not warm and fuzzy. I enjoy books that are set in the 40’s-60’s deep south, dirty south with racial tensions and humid summers. And The Help is set in 60’s Mississippi over a couple of years that include summers that are so humid sheets won’t dry on the line surrounding civil rights supporters’ deaths. So it fits that I would want to read the book and that I would enjoy it.
Before I purchased this book, everything I’d heard about it – which, granted, was very little - made me believe the author was African-American. Unfortunately, I found out that was not the case just prior to reading it. The mention of that fact – the book written about the lives of black maids from the point of view of a white author – got me turned up noses, rolled eyes, and pursed lips. I pride myself on not settling with initial feelings that I have that are racist, biased, or prejudiced. However, I found myself thinking thoughts such as, “How is a white woman gone write about life from the point of view of a black woman?” Mind you, I still haven’t cracked it open yet.
Finally, I began reading and what I found most difficult was getting a rhythm. I have read books that are written in dialect, so to speak, such as Zora Neale Hurston’s work and usually have to read them aloud until I find the rhythm of the writing. But this was different. I found myself thinking, “See? She don’t even know how to write the way we talk.” My authority on the matter is self-ordained. Never mind I didn’t grow up in Mississippi in the 60’s and never was a maid – I have decided I am an authority on writing the way we speak, also ignoring the fact that I am not a best selling author yet.
As I go further into the story I am very much engaged. I want to know what the Terrible Awful was and am guessing why Miss Celia has a rust colored stain on her rug. I am pulling for Skeeter and feeling sorry for Stuart. And I feel like this is more of the author’s story than her perspective of life from the point of view of a black maid.
But in the end I think, “Why is this book just now being released?” I am not asking a question about the author’s timing in writing the book nor the time it took to be published and released. I feel like this should have been released in 1965. Then I would appreciate it better. But right now it just makes me angry. As so much of what I hear about Mississippi does.
My people are from Mississippi. When I go to Mississippi I enjoy the tours of the cities where my uncles and aunts work, where my cousins went to school, where my Daddy used to live. I love hearing cashiers and bank tellers greet my uncle by name as he pulls up. I love when I can be identified – whether the person truly remembers me or not – by my Daddy through my uncle. My uncle says in his slow drawl, “This is my niece, Regina. You remember my brother Robert? This is his daughter.” I smile in greeting and the response is always similar – they confirm my Walker status by my smile. And I look out at this place I’ve only heard stories about and see that the leaves on the trees and the grass aren’t done justice by the label “green”. I want to retrace my Daddy’s childhood footsteps and see my granny standing on the soapbox in order to reach the back of the stove and more. I feel like Mississippi has wrapped its arms around me. And then I see the things that are accepted in Mississippi – hearing my senior citizen aunt being called “gal” by a white man made me cringe. And immediately I think, “Ooh, I got to get back to the city where it feel like we’ve overcome.” I want to fight the fights of the 21st Century – not the same ones as my Daddy.
Anyway, I felt a little more connected to the author in the section where she shares her story in her own words. She is from Mississippi and lived in New York for several years and now lives in Atlanta. She may complain about Mississippi but you better not complain about it in front of her – especially if you aren’t from there. That’s real and brings me down off my high horse.
As far as the story – as I said, it was engaging. I want to know more about what happens to each character – I’m not content with the ending where you have an idea of where each person is heading. I want to know the history of Hilly and Elizabeth – two women I feel sorry for (although if I said that in Book Club I would get the strangest looks, dead silence, and then they’d move on to the next question). I felt that it ended a little more optimistic than I would expect to be feasible for some of the characters. There were stories that I felt could have been expanded – but the book is over 400 pages so I guess some things had to go.
I don’t know if I will specifically suggest you read it. I hear it’s going to be a movie. The movie may be better than the book. I think it would be fun to see Phylicia Rashad as Aibileen and Debbie Allen as Minny. Maybe S. Epatha Merkerson could be Aibileen and Mo’Nique as Minny. I’m having a hard time envisioning an actress for Skeeter – I keep thinking a young Nicole Kidman would be perfect. Laura Linney would be good for Skeeter’s mother. Holland Taylor could be Stuart’s mother and Marin Hinkle as Elizabeth. But I’m no casting agent.
And, uh, well, that’s all I have to say about that.
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