The Help v The Real Minerva

I love to read. I read pretty much anything.  That said, it's not often I read something that gets stuck in my head.  Last week, I read not one, but two novels that I cannot. Stop. Thinking about.  


The Help by Kathryn Stockett follows three women living in Jackson, Mississippi during the civil rights movement.  One is a well-to-do young white woman, while the other two are black domestic workers.  The relationship between these women is not only unusual but downright dangerous in that time and place. 

The thing I can't stop thinking about is, this was the 1960's!  In America, for God's sake!  It wasn't the dark ages.  I can't help but wonder, how would I have lived, had I been raised in that time, in that place?  I like to think that I would have believed what I believe now: that people are people, regardless of their race, beliefs, sexual orientation, et cetera. Reading this, I was appalled at the way the black women were treated.  Of course I'd heard about segregation, but, I don't know, I guess the magnitude of living that way never really sank in.  I can't imagine having someone working in my home, raising my children,  who was not allowed to use my bathroom, or eat from my dishes.  I like to think that I would have challenged those ideas, recognized that they were wrong.  But you know, I didn't grow up in that time and place.  Maybe, had I been raised to view segregation as normal......I don't know.  It bothers me.  I had to keep reminding myself that this happened during the sixties. Only fifty years ago.  It feels impossible to me.  Yet I know it happened.

Right after I finished The Help, I picked up The Real Minerva by Mary Sharratt.  This book also followed three very different women, but this one was set in Minnesota during the 1920's.  The women in this story are complicated and spirited, and their relationship to each other is at turns complex and as basic as breathing.  I was completely consumed by this story.

One of the things that struck me the most was that these women all lived outside of the convention of society at that time.  In very different ways, they tossed aside the traditional roles of women in their respective positions to forge their own path.  It was interesting to see the reaction of the other townspeople.  Two of the women were basically shunned, while the third was held up as a role model of sorts.

Both of these books have earned a permanent place on my book shelf.  I can't wait to read more from both authors. But for now, I think I'll be going for something lighter. =)

Booking Through Thursday

Booking Through Thursday
What are you reading right now? What made you choose it? Are you enjoying it? Would you recommend it? (And, by all means, discuss everything, if you’re reading more than one thing!)

Right now, I'm reading "Marrying George Clooney" by Amy Ferris. I chose it because I loved the title, and wanted to know more about the woman who is trying to steal my man. Okay, I don't actually know George Clooney. I know, right! Shocks everyone when I admit that. Anyway, would I recommend it? Well, I'm having a hard time getting through it so probably not, but to give Ms Ferris her due, I've been pretty stressed lately and would likely have trouble focusing on any book in my collection. What I don't love about it is what I usually love about memoirs: the honesty. Ms Ferris tells all, and I mean all, in ways that make me uncomfortable. Especially some of the bits about her mother. The "dressing room" passage just seemed to me to be way too much information. I don't consider myself a prude but I have to say, some things just don't need to be shared.

Her Last Death - Susanna Sonnenberg

This book.....wow. Susanna Sonnenberg has written this memoir of growing up privileged, with a mother who is alternately loving, jealous, strung out, and just plain nuts. They have a complicated relationship that is tested by her mother's outrageous lies but never quite breaks. This one was hard to put down.