I was prepared to like this book a lot becuase of the amazing review that Rosina Lippi (one of my favorite authors) wrote about it....I was even prepare to love it considering that it's about a topic near and dear to my heart--women's relationships. I don't know that I was prepared for it to wriggle its way deep into my brain and make me think and feel in a way that I haven't done in a long while about a book. Wonderful is my best descriptor simply because words don't do this book justice.
Stockett tells the story of the relationships between black women "help" and their white women employers and the children they raise. The inconsistencies in 1960s racial codes and blatant racism and the love that these women share for one another is unexplainable, yet somehow is explained in this book. Two quotes from the book, on facing pages, almost exactly opposite one another, sum the book up very nicely:
- Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought. p.418
- And while I'd never lie and tell myself I actually changed the minds of people like Hilly and Elizabeth, at least I don't have to pretend I agree with them anymore. p. 419
I understand why this book has risen to #3 on the NYT Best Sellers list. It's excellently written, and tackles a topic that people need to read about, but does so in a way that is accessible while being revealing. I'll be thinking and talking about this book for a while...not just at bookclub.
Highly recommended. (Aunt Janice, this is her first novel, and I know you like to read "firsts"...it's a really really good one!)
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