I inhaled this book! I've been up till two or three every night this week reading...I just couldn't stop turning the pages...I would tell myself, "One more chapter. That's it. Then turn off the light and go to sleep." But one more chapter would turn into just one more and then another. It was incredibly suspenseful. Much of the time I was filled with dread...so afraid for Aibileen, Minny, and Skeeter...but I HAD to know what was going to happen. It was like watching a scary movie with my eyes half covered...seeing it unfold through the cracks between my fingers. I fell in love with the characters...and though I'm embarrassed to admit it...with the world of the story. I fully realize Jackson, Mississippi circa 1960 is no place to romanticize, but I couldn't help myself. I'm a sucker for southern literature...and I feel like Kathryn Stockett captured the South here...the good, the bad, and the ugly. Something about it resonates with me...it's almost like it's in my genes...encoded on my DNA...
Which made me wonder...if I had lived in that time and place...how would I have treated "the help"? How would I have felt about the Civil Rights Movement? Which character would I have been? I wish I could say Skeeter...but I'm not sure I'm that brave (or...reckless). I HOPE I wouldn't have been Hilly, but I do enjoy being in charge and being in the spotlight. I'm very traditional...and fairly conservative...I don't go around rocking the boat. Maybe I would have been somewhere in between. A Lou Anne...quietly doing what's right behind closed doors. It's really hard to say...
But this book makes me want to take more risks...do something BIG...something noble. It makes me grateful for all those people who have.
Oh, I can't wait to discuss this!!
ReplyDeleteHeather- I shared your love of this book- couldn't put it down, read it in two days. I also wondered what I would do had I been in the South during these times. I am afraid that my traditional, rule-following self might have been acting as those other Leaguers were acting, but I absoutely hope not. One would hope that our belief in God, the sense of morality that flows out of this, our decency would have us behaving more like Skeeter. I LOVED the book and can't wait to discuss it with everyone.
ReplyDeleteI'm really looking forward to our meeting! There's lots to talk about...
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