“The cover of my edition shows three similar birds on a branch. Two sit together, and one sits apart. The three birds appear to be alike, but one is outcast. The illustration suggests a theme of the book, that to often we focus on minor differences between us, rather than on those things which unite us.
The novel is set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi. The chapters alternate, showing us the lives of both white and black women. Early on it becomes clear that Jim Crow laws create misery in the black community, and that many white citizens are blind to the injustices of those laws. The story centers on a young white woman, Skeeter, who wants to be a journalist. Gradually she becomes aware of how unfairly black domestic help is treated by her family and the families of her friends, and she sets out to write - anonymously about it. There are subplots about Skeeter's family and her other relationships, but the heart of the book relates to the black women who raise the white children of Jackson, clean and cook for the white families, and how they gradually begin to effect change in an age of blatant institutionalized racism.
I enjoyed the book, though I found some plot elements to be predictable, some characters undeveloped or stereotyped. Still the main characters are warm and sympathetic, and it wouldn't surprise me to see this story turned into a movie sometime soon. ”
sthurner wrote this review Saturday, August 22 2009.
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