This is an adult book. A book for women. A great book club book. It's a good book.This book was passed around my school, amongst the ladies, for several months until it made its way to me.
It's the story of a very racially divided South (Mississippi) just before the Civil Rights movement really kicks into place. Skeeter, a young white woman from a wealthy family, has graduated from college. Awkward, tall, and progressive-minded, she doesn't quite fit in with her old set of friends: young, married ladies with babies, husbands, and mindless leagues and charities to fill their time. Skeeter wants love and marriage, but she wants a career and a purpose, too. However, there's little room for that in Jackson, Mississippi. The best she can get is writing the responses to the cleaning questions in the newspaper - kinda like the Helene/Helouise column, I guess. The irony of it is that Skeeter has never cleaned anything; there's always been a maid to do that for her. In order to do her job, Skeeter must get help from a maid. She asks if she can question Aibeleen, her friend's maid, for answers. That's right: She asks permission from the white lady first.
This is an eye-opening view of a racially divided world. Something hard for me to fathom: A time when good white women always had a separate bathroom for their black maids, lest any transfer of disease occurs. I mean, really? Also, these white women have maids. But they don't work. They do have children. But this is hard for me to comprehend: The women don't do much. They're well-to-do, so they don't work. (And by "don't," that also implies "not allowed," because it probably wouldn't look "right" if they did.) Their maids take care of the house, the cooking, and a lot of the child care. Goodness! I am a ship without an anchor on the days I don't have school! I mean, okay, right now I wouldn't mind having a maid. My place is messy. But it was hard for me to comprehend these women who had nothing to do but attend their women's league meetings: where they plan charity balls, raise money to send to the poor in Africa, and also fight the good fight against desegregated toilet bowls.
Back to the storyline: Skeeter wants to push herself beyond her cleaning column. She wants to tell the story of the help: the black women who clean for white women. The first to agree is Aibileen. Then Aibileen's friend Minny signs up, too. Slowly, but surely, other women agree to sign up to tell their stories. But it all must be done secretly: if anyone were to find out, violence would ensue against the black community. And the stories? Some are horrific. Some are bittersweet. Some are funny. The author does a great job of showing different facets of the characters. You develop sympathy for the black women and sympathy for some of the white women, too.
The author does a great job describing life: Skeeter's, the black maids', the white women's. That minutae and detail is interesting. A door into an older world. An unknown world. I have no idea what a rich Southern woman's life was like in the 60s. I have even less of an idea what a black maid's life was like at the times. But I am grateful I do not live there or then. But I am left to wonder, if I read this story with shock at societal attitudes of the 60s, what will people think in the 2050s, reading back on the 2000s?
My one complaint is that at times this book seemed too long. Now, I generally read a lot of YA, so that's often my complaint with adult fiction. I max out at 400 pages. But as much as I loved the detail put into describing everyday life, perhaps it was too much. Not in the level of detail provided to the major characters, but that that level of detail was provided to minor ones as well. In addition, a lot of time was lavished on Minny's employer: a poor white lady suddenly rich. It was interesting, but didn't feel pertinent. Minny's home life, however, was important. Highlighting the abuse put up with by women from their husbands.
In the end, this is Aibileen's story, and Minny's, too. Skeeter is an interesting character, and it feels good to watch her grow up: confident and ready to leave the racially divided society that she grew up in.
I recommend this book. I also think it will transfer well into the big screen, and I'm already know I'll want to go to the theater to see it.
Side Note: A book was just published similar to Skeeter's book about maids, but about nannies. The Perfect Stranger: The Truth About Mothers and Nannies is a book recording the narratives of real nannies and the narratives of the real women who employ them. The Times did an article on nanny books recently. I really like The Nanny Diaries, so it was an interesting article, and I might read any one of the books mentioned.
2 comments:
What?!?! You actually read the same book as I did?? It's been about since fifth grade! Well, I also took this up as a summer read, and would have to say I enjoyed it for its window on another world. It is crazy to me how recent this past was, how near to our own generation, and yet how utterly removed and distant it feels. The book was passed on to me also from a work friend, but the interesting thing here is, the woman who gave it to me grew up in that time period in the South. She too had a "black mammy" whom she loved dearly, who did the cooking, cleaning, child-rearing etc. She told me that this was not something for rich white women, but for everyone- an expected custom to have a black maid in every white house. She also said that her experience was not nearly so volatile and most people were treated with (greater) equality and respect than was found in Mississippi. She grew up in Oklahoma.
I enjoyed the side story regarding Minny's employer, I found it to expand the core of the novel in ways that supported a widening of perspective on a story-line that at first could have seemed to singular and preachy.
Yes, we have read the same book! And Tricia may be coming into the circle, too. A triumvirate! When was the last time that happened? Babysitter's Club?
I thought the storyline regarding Minny and her white employer to be interesting, but only in the sense that it added a contrast between a poor white woman and middle-upper class white women of the time. However, I think that is an idealized comparison, since I'm not sure all poor white women would have been as responsive to Minnie.
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