The Help

I generally know within the first 5 pages of a book if it can keep my interest and if I am into it. And it is rare that I dislike a book. I fall into the oh that was a lovely book category of readers. The act of reading is satisfying enough for me. But I l.o.v.e. The Help. Love it.

As a rule of thumb, if the book and the movie of a particular situation is out at the same time, I read the book first. If I see the movie first, I will never read it. Sad but true.

I scooped up The Help in the airport on our way to Kentucky last week. I started reading in the gift shop and didn't put the book down until we landed at 1:30am in Louisville. I repicked it up on my way back to San Fran and (aside from when the stewardess spilled water all over me) didn't pick my nose up out of the pages until Ryan picked me up at SFO.

The book is riveting. It is so well written that I felt as if I was Aibee, Minnie, or Skeeter. I most certainly never felt like Ms. Hilly...well except for wanting to smack her prejudice talk right threw the pages. I had so many emotions rushing around in my stomach and heart. In some ways, I am ashamed to be from the South when I read or hear about this type of treatment. And while Kentucky, Louisville in particular, is far from being Mississippi southern, there are still uneducated people who carry racism in their heads and hearts here. I laughed at the caddyness of girls, then, now, and always. Poor Celia Foote just wanted to fit in and she was sweet as she could be. Perhaps a bit ditsy, but hey aren't we all at times? I feared for their fear. If you count the flight I was on that caught fire and made an emergency landing, then I have I guess feared for my life once. BUT nothing close to what African Americans felt during those times. I felt compassion for the characters, all of them, because in one way or another they were mistreated, misunderstood, or just plain uneducated on life.

If you want to tap into your inner self, pick up The Help. It will make you feel things that you have never felt before. It will make you examine your own prejudices and views on the world. It will get you hysterically laughing and leave you sweetly crying.

Next up, the movie ;)