Dec 19, 2010

The Help. Final discussion - From Judy Caplan

Well I found this book an easy and enjoyable read -- but not a great book. While I have a good sense of Minny and Aibileen, Skeeter is more of a mystery to me. How did she get to be the person she is. She starts the book out as Hilly's best friend -- how could that be? I wish the author had given us a greater sense of Skeeter's development.

I am also struck by how young all these women are -- early 20's and already apparently "set in their lives".. So different from today. I also found the "miraculous recovery" of Skeeter's mother something that could have been developed. Wonder why the author just did not let her die.

My kindle version of the book contains an afterword by the author, in which she explains that after her parents divorce, when she was 6, she developed a close relationship with the family maid. Someone she reports she "loved but never asked what it felt like to be black in Mississippi, working for our white family."

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