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A review by cinabeena
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
2.0
I stayed up all night reading this book, I kept expecting it to evoke some kind of emotional outburst from me. It didn't, it just read like a okay novel. Maybe it is my bias towards slave narratives or black period pieces to be poignant. I did not get that with this book. It lost one star from the beginning because the author all though a good one, is white and I feel that she could not truly embody the voice of her black characters.
"The Help" who all were black, all came across as perceived by even the author herself as less than intelligent. Which often was untrue of the very characters she developed, I felt like her quest to be ebonically correct or assumed correct flawed her book. She wanted to give a voice to her characters by giving them the dialect of the time but as in current times not everyone spoke broken the way they do in the book. For instance when she had Abi talk about her son and the word games they played, it is clear that Abbi has a great grasp of grammar so why not just have her voice be like the white ladies of the book?
Aside from my hang up on the language, the book just did not bring it for me. After reading books like Family by J. California Cooper, I expected the same emotion. I could not truly connect to the characters, even when I read that Constantine had died, I did not feel any emotion. I was left confused, it seemed to me that there was an implication that she died because she was heart broken she could not be with her white lady. I think that is absolutely ABSURD! why would she feel anger to be separated from them when she now has her daughter who she gave up. It made no sense to me.
She has one character who is college educated but depicted as slow. The stereotypes of black life, black woman, black marriage was all to overwhelming. I kept reading, hoping that something would change but it only became clear to me that she was writing from a place she had no experience. It would have been better if she had focused more on the white characters of the book and drew from personal experience, but trying to get into the thinking of black woman during the heat of the civil rights era that is a maid....as a white woman was something she should have left alone.
Even when you thought things would get interesting with the white characters in the book, it fell flat. There was no development there either.
I too am greatly surprised that this book is doing so well...if you want a book that moves you, makes you feel emotion while you read and is coming from a sincere perspective read Family by J. California Cooper. I can't express to you how great that book is. I can't say I will be purchasing The Help or re-reading it.
"The Help" who all were black, all came across as perceived by even the author herself as less than intelligent. Which often was untrue of the very characters she developed, I felt like her quest to be ebonically correct or assumed correct flawed her book. She wanted to give a voice to her characters by giving them the dialect of the time but as in current times not everyone spoke broken the way they do in the book. For instance when she had Abi talk about her son and the word games they played, it is clear that Abbi has a great grasp of grammar so why not just have her voice be like the white ladies of the book?
Aside from my hang up on the language, the book just did not bring it for me. After reading books like Family by J. California Cooper, I expected the same emotion. I could not truly connect to the characters, even when I read that Constantine had died, I did not feel any emotion. I was left confused, it seemed to me that there was an implication that she died because she was heart broken she could not be with her white lady. I think that is absolutely ABSURD! why would she feel anger to be separated from them when she now has her daughter who she gave up. It made no sense to me.
She has one character who is college educated but depicted as slow. The stereotypes of black life, black woman, black marriage was all to overwhelming. I kept reading, hoping that something would change but it only became clear to me that she was writing from a place she had no experience. It would have been better if she had focused more on the white characters of the book and drew from personal experience, but trying to get into the thinking of black woman during the heat of the civil rights era that is a maid....as a white woman was something she should have left alone.
Even when you thought things would get interesting with the white characters in the book, it fell flat. There was no development there either.
I too am greatly surprised that this book is doing so well...if you want a book that moves you, makes you feel emotion while you read and is coming from a sincere perspective read Family by J. California Cooper. I can't express to you how great that book is. I can't say I will be purchasing The Help or re-reading it.