Sunday, November 14, 2010

The Help / Kathryn Stockett / 464 pages

What bothers me about much of fiction through the ages is the upper class perspective. Growing up poor myself, I always wonder about the perspective from the lower class. What are the hopes and dreams of the servants, for example, who frequently only appear as plot devices and stereotypes?


Undoubtedly, such a novel wouldn’t be as light-hearted as other fiction. There would be tales of survival and sacrifice, far removed from the romantic antics or obsession over social appearance often seen in the upper class novels. Throw racism from decades ago into the mix and you might have some pretty grim reading.


But The Help was one of the more compelling novels I’ve had the pleasure of listening to. The backdrop is the 1960’s segregated South, when the Civil Rights movement is slowly making inroads into Mississippi society. It takes the perspective of three women: two maids (Aibileen and Minnie) and one white college graduate (Skeeter), daughter of a well-off cotton farmer. Their stories interweave together as they become united in a common goal.


There are suspenseful, anxious moments, as you might imagine in a novel where the threat of brutal violence from the Ku Klux Klan overshadows a whole race. But there are also comic moments, especially revolving around, well, rogue toilets. And there are hopeful moments, as the characters make decisions and take steps to improve their lives.


If you like writing, this book might inspire you to look around your universe and uncover the hidden. What assumptions do you live by that blind you to the reality around you? Perhaps an individual cannot totally transcend the limitations of their culture, but they can glimpse the blind spots and injustices of the status quo.


I listened to the unabridged audio version, which has different narrators for each of the characters. I can’t recommend this audio version highly enough, which I downloaded from our local public library (Daniel Boone).

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