Posts Tagged ‘bravo’
Unbidden images of Gone With the Wind popped into my head and played out when I first started reading the stories of Aibileen and the other black maids, until I discovered that some of those same maids were college educated and reading classics like To Kill a Mockingbird and even some Freud. I had to stop and think, this story is in fact based in 1962, almost a hundred years since the slaves were set free. So what has happened in 100 years? According to this story, subservient slave labor is alive and well, except that these black women are employees instead of property.
The book spans the time from 1962-1964 in Jackson, Mississippi, the civil rights movement is rumbling. Almost everything is still segregated, except for the bus, “We sit anywhere we want to now thanks to Miss Parks.” In the background of the story, Mississippi is featured in Life magazine twice in two months for its racial unrest, Martin Luther King is planning his big march on Washington, and President Kennedy is shot. But in the foreground are the black maids and their stories, the everyday life of these women is fascinating reading, the things they had to endure, the joys and hardships. You can tell yourself this is a fiction book, but you know deep down that these things really did happen, a sad and shameful time in our Southern history.
I really enjoyed this book, it is funny and sad and serious and suspenseful and totally believable. As I am sure the author intended, I found myself rooting for the maids and abhorring their white bosses. For such an oppressing topic, it was a thoroughly great read.
Bravo! Freeze Dried Raw
Once in a great while, a book comes along that touches you and makes you sit up and take notice. This was that book.
The Help centers around three indomitable women who honestly think that they will make a difference regarding the white/black barrier back in 1960’s Mississippi. You laugh, you cry and you cheer for them. You wonder why Stuart didn’t try harder to understand Skeeter and you marvel at the friendship between Minny and Aibileen. You want to annihilate Hilly with her crassness and total lack of regard for people who are different from herself and you want to yell at Elizabeth Leefolt to pay attention to her daughter who looks upon Aibileen as a true mother figure.
This is a book that was recommended to me by several people who said it was the best book they have read in a very long time and it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I purchased it, thinking I honestly didn’t know if I would enjoy it. I am very glad that I did purchase it and read it and I would highly recommend this novel to everyone. This is a book to be savored and not taken lightly. For even though we have come a long way (we voted a black man into the White House), we still have not come far enough. Miss Stockett, thank you for this absolutely wonderful novel and please keep on writing!
Tractel BRAVO lever chain