The Help Review
Last night I finished the book, The Help. A very good read, although it took me about twenty pages to get into it. I think the biggest problem was that I had accepted the "opinion" that white person cannot write in the voice of a minority, that to do so was either unfair or would just be ineffective. However, I had done it in my own novel, and wasn't sure how I felt about it.
Kathryn Sockett, I am sure, has heard that, but she ignored it to a much greater extent than I did so that 2/3 of her very long book is in the point of view of Black maids in the early civil right movement period in Jackson, MS. It's all in first person, but of three characters, two of them African-American. I would have preferred it if she had spelled their words correctly, though.
This may be one of those books that in twenty years will be seen as cloying and dated, or maybe not. I liked it, at least the what. The how I am not sure of yet, although she keeps the point-of-view technique very consistent. I just thought one of the characters was overblown.
Kathryn Sockett, I am sure, has heard that, but she ignored it to a much greater extent than I did so that 2/3 of her very long book is in the point of view of Black maids in the early civil right movement period in Jackson, MS. It's all in first person, but of three characters, two of them African-American. I would have preferred it if she had spelled their words correctly, though.
This may be one of those books that in twenty years will be seen as cloying and dated, or maybe not. I liked it, at least the what. The how I am not sure of yet, although she keeps the point-of-view technique very consistent. I just thought one of the characters was overblown.
Comments