I hope that those of you who read, or who have already read, The Help will find it to be a very thought-provoking book. It's a "first novel" so please bear that in mind; a few of the characters, particularly Celia, are somewhat caricature-like and a bit over the top, but that's just about my only complaint.
I am a Southerner -- my ancestors are from Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee; and my family lived in New Orleans from the time I was in third grade until I went away to college. I grew up in the South of the 1960s and this book does a wonderful job of conveying that very difficult and complicated era. I have yet to meet a southerner who was not incredibly moved and touched by this book -- probably as much because of the memories it evokes and the new insights it reveals as the story itself.
There's been some criticism over the author's use of African-American dialect in the book, but I think that's an incredibly important element and it wouldn't be the same if she hadn't included it. She has used it skillfully and I can honestly say that it's very authentic -- it brings back memories of people and voices I haven't heard in years.
A good companion book to this one, by the way, is another first novel, Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan, about racial relations in post-World War II rural Mississippi. It's also quite thought-provoking.
Catherine (JerseyGirl 2)
