Book Fifty-Two: The Help

Book Fifty-Two: The Help
Finished: October 19
Pages: 451

I am often hesitant to read books that everyone seemed to love. If too many people hype a book up, I am all the more likely to dislike it. Maybe it's just my indie cred sensibilities that make me want to dislike things because they are popular. Maybe it's that books can rarely live up to our expectations of them. In the same way, I don't want to hype up a book here and have people be disappointed in it, but you're just going to have to bear with me here.
I have been meaning to read this book since it came out. I was drawn first by the cover, the three birds and the yellow background is pretty eye-catching. I was just waiting for it to come out in paperback. Let me tell you, I'm glad that I didn't wait, because man, I'd still have several months to go and this book has been out for almost two years.
The story of three women in the divided South, The Help seems to me to be a story of the times. Although this story is told from the perspective of women, and the issues dealt with are almost exclusively in the realm of women, I think that this is a book that could, conceivably, appeal to anyone. The relationship between white and black women, and between the boss (I wish I could come up with a better word here) and the help is complex and perhaps in some ways glossed over in this book. I think that all people hope that, were we to live in the 1960's or 70's, we would be the "good guys" who were all for integration, and never said anything racist or participated in the active exclusion of others because of their differences. I'm no different. I would like to think that I would stand up against injustice regardless of the social ramifications, but I just don't know if that's the case.
I read several uncomplimentary reviews of this book, mostly due to the reader's dissatisfaction with the negative portrayal of white women, and the overly sweet portrayal of the black women as needing the white women to help them, and being understanding and appreciative of that help when they received it. I suppose I can understand this viewpoint because it did seem insincere at times that a white woman would wish the help black women, and maybe it was hard to understand that a white woman at this point in time would not understand the possible consequences of writing down the true stories of black women who worked in white households, and raised white children.
Some of these stories are so horrifying that they could only be true. There is no other option. And let's be honest, I don't have the least idea of what it means to deal with this kind of prejudice, and so I can't say if the struggles faced by these characters are accurate, or genuine. I can say that the characterization felt realistic to me, and I certainly identified with the characters and their actions at different points in the novel.
I'm certainly buying this for a few friends for Christmas, just so I can have more people to talk with about it.

Good Reading,
Caitlin