book review - The Help

i believe that MOST books that are adapted for movies or television are better as the book.  for this reason, i prefer reading the book prior to seeing the movie.  for some people this ruins the movie.  however, i have to agree with a friend of mine that argued that if the movie isn't good, there's no motivation to read the book.  i've seen this title on the bestsellers list for awhile now but didn't know much about it.  recently i caught a preview for the movie.  it looked really good!  so good, that i searched out the read and finished it in 2 days.  i guess i can still manage some pleasure reading now and then!  i'm hoping to watch the movie soon and give a comparison but for now i'll just talk about the book.

it made me cry.  Kathryn Stockett took an extremely sensitive issue and crafted a touching story full of believable characters.  there's a lot of controversy surrounding both the book and movie.  some people are angry that a white woman has attempted to "speak for blacks" and that the story's heroine is a "privileged white girl" while others are pleased with the depiction of black domestic workers in the south during the civil rights movement.  what i took from the story is that we are all people, just trying to figure this life out.

i cannot imagine the level of hurt, disgust and frustration these women must have felt.  but i can imagine the pride, sense of accomplishment, and relief they may have felt after telling their story.  i look around and am thankful that some of the things people believed and deemed illegal are no longer issues.  i am a woman that can vote.  i make the same amount of money as my male counterpart for doing the same job.  i am in an interracial marriage.  and the list goes on.  stories like these are testaments of how far we've come, yet they also serve as reminders of how far we still have to go...