The Help

Thanks to Lindsay for recommending The Help to me. I had a terrible time being an attentive parent because I didn't want to put it down.

I had to admire Kathryn Stockett for writing a book about her hometown (Jackson, MS). Set in the early 1960s, The Help is a look at the lives of black and white women during the beginning of the civil rights movement. It was real, painful, honest, thoughtful.

I was reminded of my trips to the south and everything I took in. First, to South Carolina to visit my mom's good friend Jenny, when I was 19. She and I had many good talks about the reality of racism, and ongoing segregation in some areas (church, for instance). I learned a lot from her when I was very impressionable.

The second trip I took was to Atlanta when I was 27. I stayed in downtown Atlanta and the tension between the races and the hot, humid, southern heat stayed with me and made Atlanta one of my least favorite places.

The third trip was a few years later when I went to Jackson, Mississippi. I worked a Christian conference and couldn't get black people to meet my eye when I spoke to them. That and the most bizarre pre-conference dinner where I was really introduced to a type of "white Southern woman" on a new level left me feeling like I had gone to another country. I had never encountered so many big-haired, perfectly manicured, made-up women in one place before. And mothers peddling their daughters to eligible young men.

And yet, the South is one of the most interesting places and has made some of the strongest people. A lot of great literature, and women you would want to sit down and have iced tea with just to listen to them and their lives. (If you can get below the surface.)

This book, Stockett's first novel, was amazing, riveting, real. And a step back into a world on the brink of change.