The Help

I read The Help in July.  It is set in the south during the civil rights movement.  Skeeter Phelan has graduated from college and is ready to write and to take the world by storm.  Her mother has other ideas.  She wants Skeeter to settle down, get married and start a family - what every good southern girl of that era was raised to do.  While she does take part in the Junior League and other socially acceptable activities, Skeeter also takes a job working as a housekeeping advice columnist in the local paper. It is a far cry from the New York publication to which she aspires, as well as from the advice she received from its editor - to write about something that is really important to her.  She starts consulting the African American maids who work for her family and friends for advice about how to answer some of the dilemmas that people send. She soon finds that there is a real story in how these women feel about working for their bosses - many of whom are Skeeter's friends.  She pitches her idea to the New York editor and then sets out to earn the trust of the women in order for them to tell her their tales.

I really enjoyed the book, and while the movie was a very good adaptation, it was still better than the film.  Maybe, there's something to be said about one's own imagination...However, I highly recommend both.

I will leave you with a little something:

To N. Cruz ~ a haiku

Nelly can catch good,
And he can throw really good,
But hitting is best.

Go Rangers!!!

MK out.