Wow. Great book. Really. I had no idea what this book was about, but selected it in my continuing search for New York Times Best Sellers my children can read, without permanent mental damage. SCORE!
Set in early 1960's Mississippi and told from the point of view of two black maids and one white single woman in her 20's. Circumstance brings them together to write a secret book, nonfiction, of what it is like to work for a white family. You care about the characters, you fear for their safety and hurt for their pain. You cheer for their resilience and small triumphs and you are disappointed by their failures.
This is fiction, but written by someone who lived the process of being raised by a black woman in their own white home. Given early civil rights Mississippi, there is some violence, some drinking,and a few swear words. But a teen reader will find themselves educated more about drinking, violence and swearing by listening to 15 minutes of pop music, and educated by this book about love, power, and the deep southern roots of racial inequality. If you're library folks, get yourself on The List for The Help. Immediately.
I, too, really enjoyed this book!
ReplyDeleteMy gosh, growing up in Oklahoma in the '60s, there were so many venues that rang true to my childhood. Thank God (literally) that my parents saw fit to raise us kids with a different perspective from the local, and perhaps even different from what they had been raised to think.
I recommend this book for its "easy read", for both its funny and serious subject lines, and for the < as I see it> accurate historical portrayal of Southern women and their 60s housekeeping detail.