The Help

I just finished reading the book The Help.  I certainly had mixed feelings about it.  We have been reading it for our book club.  We meet next week, and it will be interesting to see what the others thought about it.  I haven’t seen the movie, but I understand that it is very close to the book.  It took me a while to get into the book.  I thought it was interesting, but a little predictable.  Although in one sense, it is loosly based on the events of the 60’s.   I do have to admit I was appalled at the selfishness and shallowness of most of the “white” women in the book.

Although I was in my teens in the 60’s, I remember a few events.  Unfortunately I don’t remember as much as I wish I did.  I had the disease of the teens, self-absorbment.  I do remember watching the civil disobedience taking place in the south.  I also remember hearing about those civil rights workers trying to help register the African Americans to vote.  I remember the Arkansas nine, those students who wanted to go to the University of Arkansas and Governor Wallace blocking their way into the administration building.  (Unbelievable)  I remember watching on TV the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, and the Watts riots.  It was amazing to see the destruction take place in California.