Kitten Heels Sorta' Recommends.....

A recent book club assignment has led me to the wildly popular book, THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett. A few ladies in the book club already read the book and liked it. I’m about half-way through the book and I must say that I’m torn. I really don’t enjoy books written in Southern dialect. Usually because there are inconsistencies, as some words will be spelled as they’re pronounced, while others aren’t, for example spelling going as goin’, while not spelling the as ‘da. I believe that I really don’t need the dialect written out. While reading I find that if a character is Southern or Midwestern or foreign I naturally hear their voice in the dialect. I pretty much like the story overall, but am annoyed by the dialect and the treatment and injustices that some of the characters face. I like it enough to continue. Here’s the synopsis:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

You know a book is popular when at least two things happen, 1 – a movie is in the works and 2 – a lawsuit has been filed. The movie is set to come out in August 2011. There’s a pretty good line-up of stars so I might check it out. The lawsuit was filed by the author’s brother’s actual maid. Her name and some of her life experiences are similar to of one of the characters. I read an article that implied that perhaps the lawsuit had to do with family dynamics also. The outcome should be interesting.

I’m going to finish the book mostly out of curiosity. I do want to see how the characters end up. Like some of the reviewers on Amazon, I won’t be reading it over and over, one time will do. I sorta recommend it because it is so popular and provocative. You too should check it out……..maybe :).

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