WOW! What a book - 5 stars
This book is one of
the best I’ve read in a long time. I
knew right from the start that I was going to be sad when I came to the
end. The characters are wonderful,
although there is a couple I’d like to knock on the head. This is writing at its best. I can picture everyone in the book, from the
black maids talking in the kitchen, or the privileged white ladies at their
benefits.
This book is about
diversity and segregation in the south in the 1960’s, particularly Mississippi . The reader gets a look into the daily lives
of the colored ladies who keep house and raise the kids for the white
people. Although this is a serious story
and there are some awful moments in this book, there is enough humor to keep
the reader chuckling throughout. It was
definitely hard to put this book down each night and go to bed.
I grew up in the South
during this time, and can relate to all the issues in the book. The dialogue is wonderful and the author
accurately portrays the food and the weather, bringing back many memories for
me.
I was interested in
the lives of all the maids in the book and the awful conditions they had to
endure in that time of great civil unrest.
The maids are desperate as they tolerate abuse from the white ladies
they work for, who ultimately hold their fate in their hands. I wanted to cry when I see them wrongly
accused for stealing, and then fired because if it. There are times when false rumors are spread
too, making it impossible for the maid to find other work.
Skeeter, Aibileen and
Minny are the main characters in this book.
I loved each of these unique women, who had enough guts to stand up and
try to change the terrible conditions that existed in those days.
Ambitious Skeeter wants
to become a writer, much to her mother’s disgust. Her mother wants to see her married and
taking her place in white society when she comes home from college. Skeeter befriends the maids, kind-hearted Aibilene
and sassy Minny, who gradually begin to trust her, after she has planted the
idea of a book project to shed light on the working conditions for maids in Mississippi . More maids jump onboard the book project, as
black people are beaten and killed in their town. They all take a risk and that risk comes with
a price.
Hilly, the white Queen
Bee you love to hate adds fuel to the fire by constantly spreading her message
that colored folks carry diseases. She
questions their hygiene, although she allows her own maid in the kitchen to
cook all the food, take care of the kids, and clean the house. Hilly goes on a toilet campaign to make sure
every white household in Jackson
has a toilet for the colored help. This
crusade only spurs Skeeter and the maids on to tell their story, hoping the
book will be published and that they will remain anonymous, so as not to bring
anymore ill will down on themselves. At
the same time, they are hoping that conditions will change and people will look
deeper than the color of someone’s skin.
Not all the white
people treated the maids badly, although most did. We see how strange it was growing up in the
south in those days when Minny goes to work for Celia Foote, the “white trash,”
who allows her to sit at the table, drink coffee, and eat with her. They really begin to care for each other when
Minny sees she is different from the many employers she’s had in the past.
There was never a dull
moment. I really LOVED this book and
want to read it again. I checked this
copy out of the library, but I will now buy my own copy. What a great debut novel. I hope Kathryn Stockett writes a sequel.
