The Help Is Gripping

When my book club decided to read  the book The Help almost a year ago, I didn't think I would like it that much. I am not originally from the South and my family never had a black maid. I often don't relate to Southern literature for those reasons. Growing up in the South was a lot different that growing up in the North apparently. Up North, we didn't have black maids and did not have the guilt conciousness that is prevalent in the South. If you are not a racist in the South, you more than likely have guilt consciousness about how blacks were treated. And that is a good thing.  For those who grew up in areas where blacks were servants and not treated equally, and you remember that from your youth, you should feel some guilt, even if you didn't do anything wrong. You were still part of that system, like it or not.

I could not put the book down. Being a journalist, I think I was initially pulled in by Skeeter, who is the journalist and the impetus behind the book. She is super. I would like to be at least a smidgen like her. Then I got hooked on the greater story--telling the story of the maids, and that was so compelling. Even though it is a work of fiction, there were probably some similar real milestones that helped the movement along the way. And you wished that there had been such a book published back in the 60s.

Then I saw the move The Help this weekend and thought it was likewise fabulous. It captured the spirit of the book very well and had a great cast. I shed a tear a time or two. The friend I went with said the book and the movie fell a little short--that the hard work of civil rights came after the time of the book. I told her I agreed with her, but that was for another book and another movie. This one was purely for the maids and their voice.  About time.