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This month we read and discussed Kathryn Stockett's The Help and man alive did we all love it! It's impossible to put down!! The Help, according to Huffington Post, "details the lives of black maids in 60's Mississippi and the white women they work for." And it has caused quite the controversy. The book, written by Caucasian Ms. Stockett, is written entirely in dialect during the African-American maids' portions - some have called it racist and others have simply requested the "black" version of The Help. (Huffington Post) Despite the taboo, all members of Book Club absolutely fell in love with the warm, southern ladies in the book!
WARNING, the following discussions may act as a Spoiler!!
Most of America was desegregating in the 1960's, but in Jackson, Mississippi it was far from acceptable to mix races - there were separate neighborhoods, drinking fountains, grocery stores and even in the homes black women worked as maids there were "colored" bathrooms. While hard to believe in today's world, this separation is the basis of The Help.
Skeeter, a college graduate with untamable hair (lol!) determined to get out of her small town and to New York to become a writer is told by an editor that she needs to write about something "real". Having had a wonderful and mother-daughter-like relationship (most white children were raised by their maids - it was unreal) with her former maid, Constantine, who mysteriously disappeared while she was away at school, she decided it was time someone tell the maid's side of the story.
Skeeter convinces, old-timer Aibileen (who we all fell in love with - I want this woman to tell me stories!!), who works for sometimes kind, but backbone-less Elizabeth, to be her interviewee and together they begin to write about what it's really like for a black maid working for a white woman. Once Skeeter sends the beginning of her book, which she calls The Help, the editor says that she'll need more points of view. That's when Aibileen begs Minny Jackson, a young mouthy maid with a mean husband, to help - at first she refuses, but eventually she and many other maids in town jump in to help. Once the book is published, the entire town of Jackson is up in arms trying to figure out if they are in the book! Hilly Holbrook, who continuously strives for the segregation of black maids in white households, is the leader in this hunt for who is part of the book and in the end she gets what is coming to her. Unfortunately, she ruins a few maids' lives in the process.
Throughout the book you feel like you're living in the south - the details are wonderful and the pain these black woman, and their families, experience is right there at your fingertips. You want to hang out with Skeeter, ask Aibileen to cook you a meal, have Minny on your side, kick Hilly Holbrook right in the behind and hug Celia Foote (Minny's sweet, yet hillbilly boss) when she finds out she can never have a child. It touches on so many sensitive points, while still being light and humorous. There is love, loss and of course, the "terrible awful" thing Minny does to Hilly's pie will make you queasy in your stomach!!
We were a little upset with the way the book ended - no one wanted to see Aibileen get fired. However, it was wonderful that she was going to have revenue from the book, as well as the housekeeping column she was taking over for Skeeter. We just wished she would have said that money would be enough to survive on, but unfortunately that's not the way it worked out. Everyone most definitely wanted to book to keep going - we wanted to see how Skeeter did in New York, if Minny really left her no good husband this time and what Aibileen ended up doing to support herself.
All in all, we were very happy with The Help and would certainly recommend it to anyone and everyone!! We absolutely can't wait to see the movie either!!!
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Next month, we've chosen to read Sarah's Key by Tatiana de Rosnay - which, of course, is going to be a movie, too!
We'll be meeting on September 1st, so mark your calendars and we'll see you then!! Don't forget to tell your friends to join baci's book club :o)
Oh and be sure to check out the most recent baci's baking recipe for Watermelon Salsa from Book Club member, Cathy!
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