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emma's Reviews > The Help
The Help
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emma's review
bookshelves: non-ya, historical, reread, literary-fiction, reviewed, unpopular-opinion, nope, 1-and-a-half-stars, project-review-everything
Nov 04, 2021
bookshelves: non-ya, historical, reread, literary-fiction, reviewed, unpopular-opinion, nope, 1-and-a-half-stars, project-review-everything
Read 3 times. Last read December 25, 2009.
how do you even discuss the damage this book, completely well-intentioned as it seems to be, has done?
i guess i can start this way:
the year i turned 12, this book was The Book. sold bajillions of copies, topped best-of lists by critics and media and readers, sold its movie rights. because i was a 10 year old who read everything, and because this book sounded hard but important, i got it for christmas.
i read it for the first time that day and cried my eyes out at the ending. i read it a million times more after that, not putting it down for what would ultimately be the last time until i was well into teenagedom. i didn't always answer the question "what's your favorite book?" with this, but i sometimes did.
in other words, because i had just turned 12 and because i lived in a mostly white area and and because my library selection was well-meaning but white and because i went to a public school where we didn't learn about slavery or jim crow or reconstruction until middle school, and we didn't REALLY learn about it ever, this book, by a white woman, was one of my first encounters with the concept of race.
this book, which is about a white woman being better equipped than black women to tell their story twice over, both on-page and off.
this book, which serves as an instruction manual for white women on how to use their tears. (an unnecessary one, since we've always been fairly good at that, but one all the same.)
this book, of white saviordom and of black women as background and as supporting characters to white protagonists and as both nannies and mothers but only one role matters to the story.
this book, in which black women speak in dialect and white women (even the "white trash" ones) speak in unaccented grammatically perfect english.
this book, which begins and ends in the 1960s and yet is feel-good above all, attempting a "we're all people!" happy tone that ignores privilege and racism and what is to come in order to try on the kind of color-blind belief system that eases the existences of white people everywhere.
this book, an account of black women losing their jobs and livelihoods and white women becoming what they always dreamed of being.
how to begin to undo the impact this story had on my brain?
this is part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago and reveal my addiction to getting yelled at in comments
i guess i can start this way:
the year i turned 12, this book was The Book. sold bajillions of copies, topped best-of lists by critics and media and readers, sold its movie rights. because i was a 10 year old who read everything, and because this book sounded hard but important, i got it for christmas.
i read it for the first time that day and cried my eyes out at the ending. i read it a million times more after that, not putting it down for what would ultimately be the last time until i was well into teenagedom. i didn't always answer the question "what's your favorite book?" with this, but i sometimes did.
in other words, because i had just turned 12 and because i lived in a mostly white area and and because my library selection was well-meaning but white and because i went to a public school where we didn't learn about slavery or jim crow or reconstruction until middle school, and we didn't REALLY learn about it ever, this book, by a white woman, was one of my first encounters with the concept of race.
this book, which is about a white woman being better equipped than black women to tell their story twice over, both on-page and off.
this book, which serves as an instruction manual for white women on how to use their tears. (an unnecessary one, since we've always been fairly good at that, but one all the same.)
this book, of white saviordom and of black women as background and as supporting characters to white protagonists and as both nannies and mothers but only one role matters to the story.
this book, in which black women speak in dialect and white women (even the "white trash" ones) speak in unaccented grammatically perfect english.
this book, which begins and ends in the 1960s and yet is feel-good above all, attempting a "we're all people!" happy tone that ignores privilege and racism and what is to come in order to try on the kind of color-blind belief system that eases the existences of white people everywhere.
this book, an account of black women losing their jobs and livelihoods and white women becoming what they always dreamed of being.
how to begin to undo the impact this story had on my brain?
this is part of a series i'm doing in which i review books i read a long time ago and reveal my addiction to getting yelled at in comments
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
Finished Reading
Started Reading
December 25, 2009
–
Finished Reading
July 7, 2014
– Shelved
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by
Jonathan
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rated it 2 stars
Nov 04, 2021 10:24AM
I felt similarly and got bored with the repetition. Two stars was generous for me!
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Oh shit, going to have to go back and reread this one. Great points, well made.
Powerful review. I just picked this book up because everyone was talking about it and immediately googled the author because it's something I do and discovered a white, rich chick would tell the tale of black domestics not even allowed to store their lunch in the family fridge. The fact the brother's nanny. a black domestic, was suing since the author basically stole her story was enough for me to stop reading it.
