The Help

I read The Help for my book group this month.  It is about southern women in the 60s and the maids that work for them.  Yesterday was book group and I only picked this up to begin reading a week ago, but I finished it quickly.  It is a fast read, mostly because I think it is a well-told story.  We had a lively discussion about many different topics; the book brings up issues about both whites and blacks.

I have read several negative reviews about the book, all of which were written by black women.  Most of the reviews, however, have been very favorable, and people like it enough that it has remained on the NY Times Best Seller List for over a year.  I, too, liked it, but I wanted more.  I liked the characters, although I agree with the negative reviews which have said they were fairly stock characters, somewhat stereo-typical.  I enjoy the sense of the south Stockett shared in her writing.  I was able to catch a glimpse of a past era and culture I have no personal experience with.

My favorite quote from the book: "We are just two people.  Not that much separates us.  Not nearly as much as I'd thought."

One review I read complained that Stockett did not actually speak to anyone who had been a maid during this period, and that as a white woman, she couldn't possibly understand what it was like, even though Stockett grew up with a black maid.  Considering that the book is about a white woman wanting to capture the voices of black maids, I found it ironic that Stockett did not do the same in order to give her work greater authenticity.  

I was pleasantly surprised, however, to find that Stockett did consider firsthand narratives, actual Primary source material.  At the end of the book, in the acknowledgements, she thanks Susan Tucker, the author of the book Telling Memories Among Southern Women, "whose beautiful oral accounts of domestics and white employers took [her] back to a time and place that is long gone."  I was intrigued by this short note and the book, so I had my mom check it out of the BYU library for me.  It is a scholarly work of recorded interviews of women who worked as black maids and also of those who had black maids.  I began reading this one last week and will post on that when I am through.

I have help.  I have a Peruvian woman named Blanca who cleans my house for me.  She only comes once a week, but I find that I am encountering complications in our relationship.  I pay her for four hours of work at my house, and for four hours of work at my in-laws, and she only works three and a half for me and far less for my in-laws.  Sometimes she isn't even at George and Merlynn's house for two hours.  I need to talk to her about working more or being paid less, and I don't want to do it.  

I like Blanca.  She is widow with two teenage daughters, one who has major emotional problems.  She works hard to provide for them and I know she struggles to make ends meet.  I have made an effort to find her work, and feel good that many of my neighbors have begun using Blanca to clean their homes, thus providing her with increased income.  We have all that we need and more.  We have been incredibly blessed and I want to be able to help others and share the bounties I enjoy.  In this case, however, I feel somewhat like I am being taken advantage of.  I know that Blanca must look at my situation--large and lovely home, husband who works to provide for us--and think that I should be able to pay her what I pay her and more.  I am rich in her eyes.  And yet I'm not.  We are careful with our money and I don't want Blanca to think I owe her something because I have more than she does.  I will need to talk to her when she comes next Monday to clean the toilets so I don't have to.  I want to be kind, I am grateful to be able to afford a house cleaner, but Blanca works for me and I want something more from her.  I am going to pray about how to talk to her so that neither of us come away feeling that we are misunderstood.  Wish me luck!