Rescue Me from Reader’s Purgatory, Please!

Currently, I’m suffering a reader’s purgatory wherein every novel I read is mundane with cardboard characters, a plodding plot, or uninspired writing. Let me tell you about it: 

I read a book which is a young adult paranormal novel about a girl who falls in love with a young, mysterious, fallen angel. I liked the premise and thought it might be wildly, wickedly romantic and entertaining. A week after I read the book, I couldn’t remember a thing about it. Not one. To tell you this much about it, I had to look it up online. I can’t recommend a book that is so unremarkable. I still don’t know how the title relates to the story, but the best thing about the book was the cover and the promising title, Hush, Hush. Perhaps you’ve read it.

I noticed Nicholas Sparks has a new book published and thought it would be great for my next book review. It’s called Safe Haven and tells the story of a woman with a secret and a good guy who falls very quickly in love with her. I delight in a love story where the reader can savor the clever dialogue between the couple as the romance builds. This is not that story. These characters fall in love ‘kerplunk’ as if they need to fall in love with someone….any highly attractive, nice person will do. The story is reminiscent of one of the lesser Hallmark Channel movies...been there, done that. The young woman’s secret is an abusive husband. There are details of the abuse that I really didn’t want to read about. Too tell the truth, I decided to do something I hardly ever do—I decided not to finish the book. I glanced at the end and realized there is a twist to it…maybe that and the author’s reputation will create some interest for you to read the book.

Because Safe Haven was commonplace, I began a search for a book with the promise of more excitement. I came across an online article about a new book that Steven Spielberg is developing a film from-- a posthumously published novel by the late Michael Crichton. Perfect! Remembering the uniqueness and thrill of Jurassic Park, I decided to read Pirate Latitudes. The first few chapters introduce the flavor of the often lewd, coarse 17^th century living conditions, customs and habits of the residents of Port Royal, Jamaica. I could tell from the details that Michael Crichton had done his historical research. Captain Charles Hunter selects his pirate crew according to their various talents to aid in seizing a Spanish treasure galleon anchored at an impregnable Spanish harbor, guarded by a garrison of soldiers with a particularly nasty villain in charge. What follows is one adventure after another. Yet, the adventures are superficial and seem hurried. And the characters seem flat. I didn’t care if they triumphed or not. Again, I did something I rarely do—skipped to the end after reading two thirds of the book. Since this story was found on the author’s computer after he died, I’m wondering if it was actually not ready for publication. Perhaps, it is a comprehensive outline and would have had more depth of character and plot had the author finished it.

So, here I am once more, an avid reader on a quest for an exceptional book--exciting, memorable, fresh. Perhaps you can help with a recommendation of which I will be most grateful.

Review of The Help by Katheryn Stockett

Which is it? A Five-star or a One-star Book? You decide.

By Linda

Summary: The year is 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. The book begins with Aibileen, a black maid who must endure racial disrespect from her employer and her employer’s friends. Aibileen tells her story in first person and begins with her care for a little girl who is selfishly ignored by her mother, Aibileen’s employer. Aibileen also shares the tension she experiences when her employer’s racist friends don’t want to use the same bathroom as the “colored” maid. They convince their friend, Aibileen’s employer, to build a small wooden bathroom in the garage for the maid to use. Aibileen never expresses her opinions or feelings to these ladies and submits to saying thank-you for the bathroom when pressed. She knows it’s not safe for her to express her anger or make any mistakes. One young black man who has befriended Aibileen merely makes a mistake and suffers a terrible consequence.

The second part of the book has her friend Minnie, also a maid, as the first person narrator to further the story. Minnie can’t control her anger at the way she is treated with contempt by the white people in her life. Minnie ‘talks back’ and when one of her mean-spirited employers takes offence, she accuses Minnie, unfairly, of stealing and fires her. As a result, Minnie takes an ‘unspeakable’ revenge. And she has a very difficult time finding another employer.

But the tables are about to turn because the third and final narrator is a young white woman who sees the treatment of the black maids as unjust. She wants to interview them for a book that will reveal the facts, and she has the ear of a New York editor who thinks this idea will make a perfect book for them to publish.

My Review: I was immediately drawn into Aibileen’s story. In many cases, she was the only voice of reason, and there was something very likable about her. But the fact is, I would have enjoyed the book more if she had remained the narrator for the entire book. I don’t find the ‘voice’ or the stories of the other two characters as vibrant. I wonder if the author felt more affection for Aibileen too.

On Amazon.com there are 2,706 reviews of this book so far—an astounding 2,160 people gave it 5 out of 5 stars and only 94 people gave it one star. The contrasting viewpoints of the reviewers were whether or not the characters’ dialect was representative of the story’s setting, whether the events were true to life and whether the characters seemed real or were cardboard stereotypes.

As to the debate about the authenticity of the dialect, I am not personally familiar with the southern black dialect of the 60’s so I found Aibileen’s words and way of speaking different from my only sources of information—tv and the movies. However, the plot seemed realistic and the characters seemed to be genuinely motivated.

Five-star or one-star book? You decide. If you like a detailed, thought-provoking, character and relationship driven, slower-paced novel with a message, then, this one is definitely your cup of tea.

About the Author: This is Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel. She was raised by a black maid, Demetrie, in Mississippi and says she wanted to write the book because she has spent years wishing she had asked Demetrie what it felt like to be black in Mississippi , working for a white family.

As a side note, I highly recommend a movie from the early 90s that starred Whoopi Goldberg and Sissy Spacek called The Long Walk Home. It has a similar theme of a black maid in a white household. The story takes place in Montgomery , Alabama during the mid 1950s, the time of Rosa Park’s arrest, the bus boycott, bombing of Dr. King’s house and the beginning of the civil rights movement. I cheered for the black lady who stood up quietly, yet proudly, for her civil rights and also for the honorable white lady whose response to injustice was defiance.