Haven't seen the movie, loved the book.
Stockett deals with a major topic by looking at an area that has largely been ignored in both documentary and fiction... domestic help in Southern USA during the 1960s. The topic? Racism. The big events surrounding the KKK and Martin Luther are in evidence, but as background. We hear about a protest march, about some events surrounding a forced school de-segregation, and a black American is murdered by whites near where the story takes place. However the bulk of this long novel is about the equally rancid and devastating racism present on an hourly and daily basis in the relationship between white women and the black servants they employ. The only other work I can recall that touches on this was The Colour Purple, though perhaps I'm less likely to come across such material as white Australian male.
While the author has a very definite point to make, the story works because the story is intriguing and the characters are interesting and complex. The whites are not portrayed as universally unlikable (though there is a villain), and the black women are far from perfect (though there is a heroine).
The narrator's voice moves agilely and effectively between Aibileen, Minny and Miss Skeeter, with occasional interludes from a third person narrator. Aibileen and Minny are domestic servants, and Miss Skeeter is the young adult daughter of local farmers. She probably should have turned out similar to other white Southern women in either ignoring or actively becoming involved in the oppression of black domestic helpers, but has become distant from her mother and remembers with great affection the care lavished on her as a child by a domestic helper who has since mysteriously vanished.
She is not allowed the kudos of being anti-racist on principle. Her involvement in the main part of the story comes when her burning ambition to become a writer meets a stumbling block: a well placed editor indicates that she will consider her manuscripts providing she can find something worth writing about... and circumstances result in the story of the book. Just to be clear for those who have not seen the movie, this book is actually about the writing of a book... partly by Miss Skeeter as she tells the stories of some of the less well educated women, and partly by Aibileen, who, it turns out, is an able writer herself.
I had to read this in short bursts, as I found the injustice of the working conditions, pay scales, and demeaning protocols difficult to take in large quantities. Still, one has a reasonable idea that at least some injustices will be righted before the end of the book. As matters reached a crescendo however I simply couldn't stop.
This is a book that has rich characterisation, intense drama and focuses on a very significant and thought provoking topic. There is no reason any teenager should not read this, and adults will love it: the sad and terrible reality of racism is confronting but the story is deeply engaging. For bibliophiles in particular this is a story about how writing and publishing can change lives and culture.
Andrew Lack
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