“I am afraid I have told too little. Not just that life was so much worse for many black women working in the homes in Mississippi, but also that there was so much more love between white families and black domestics than I had the ink or the time to portray.”
Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel looks at
the relationships between white women and their African-American maids in early
1960s Mississippi. The story is narrated in turn by Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, a
young university graduate who has returned to her hometown to find a job as
a journalist; Aibileen Clark, a maid and
nanny employed by one of Skeeter’s good friends; and Minny Jackson, Aibileen’s
best friend who keeps losing jobs as a maid because of her sass. All three
women must work to complete interviews for a secret book about the lives of
“the help” and their role within the families that employ them as the atmosphere of
dangerous racial intolerance in Jackson heats up around them. Stockett uses
plenty of convincing Southern vernacular (Law, sho’ nuff, y’all) to convey a
strong sense of time and place, and the tone of this piece of historical
fiction remains optimistic despite its serious themes.
Visit Kathryn Stockett’s official website here.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.