The Help

A while ago I was looking for something new to read when The Help was mentioned on a forum I frequent.

I had not heard of it before, nor was I aware that there was buzz around the book and that a movie was imminent.

Two weeks ago I was on leave and went to the library to get some reading material to relax with.

The Help was no where to be seen on the shelves, but just as I was about to leave, the book was returned!

Happy days!

I had another book to finish so only started it the weekend.

The novel is set in the early 1960′s in the American South, Jackson Mississippi and is told from the points of view of three women, two of them black maids and the third a white recent graduate journalist.

Unlike many books of this nature the story is told with no bitterness.

Their stories are theirs alone although it might represent many others as well. They however speak for themselves not their particular race groups.

We Skeeter the journalist, sees her friends as the people she grew up with. She plays bridge with them and laughs with them. Until she experiences their prejudice.

However we don’t only see good black people and bad white people.

Characters are judged on the way they behave, rather than the colour of their skin.

The other main characters are Aibileen, housekeeper and nanny to one of Skeeter’s best friends as well as Minny who gets fired from her jobs because she is unable to keep her mouth shut.

Until she meets and starts working for Cecilia , a woman seen as white trash who married up. Cecilia, hardly seems to notice that Minny is black and Minny’s personality is what Cecilia needs. So the two make an unconventional team.

I simply loved this book. It hits close to home for many South Africans though. Especially where black women leave their homes and their families to raise other people’s children to put food on their table.

But read the book for what it’s worth. A beautiful story of women coming together to make a difference without high profile platforms.

The Time Traveller’s Wife tells the story of Henry a time traveller and his wife Clare.

Clare first meets Henry when she is 6 and he is 36. He meets her for the first time (in real time) when Clare is 20 and Henry 28 and they get married when she is 22 and he 30.

Henry has a genetic disorder that periodically resets his genetic clock, causing him to time travel backward and forward in time.

His situation is dangerous, as he leaves everything behind when he travels, even his clothes. This causes him to have to steal clothes and money – leading to some hair raising moments for Henry. He gets beat up often, when he falls naked into wherever he lands up. Something he has no control over.

He sometimes meets up with his older or younger self.

One of the downsides to time travelling for Henry is that he can’t change the sequence of events.

Clare has the unenviable position of watching Henry disappear all the time and she has no idea the condition he will be in when he returns.

A very different kind of story, suspenseful in parts, but overall a love story.

Many people have read and enjoyed this book.  The Time Traveller’s Wife was for weeks on many best seller lists for weeks.

Halfway through the book, my interest waned though – I took 2 weeks to finish it, not something that happens when I’m into a book.

I enjoyed it in parts and the story itself was satisfying. You can almost believe time travel is possible.

The movie version of the best seller He’s just not that into you” is being released during February.

The movie stars Jennifer Aniston and Ben Affleck amongst a host of other recognizable Hollywood actors.

Most people became aware of the book through the Oprah show and since then girlfriends all over the world at one time or another would have heard those words directed at them from their best friends.

The book was written by Greg Behrendt and Liz Tuccillo who were writers on the series version of Sex and the City and while writing a script for an episode, came up with the idea of the book and mantra for single women in relationships.

Of course when Oprah got wind of the book, a few women were brought into the studio to talk about the uhmmm loser boyfriends and told: “Honey, he’s just not that into you!”

Many men probably heard about it that very night of the Oprah episode. 

He doesn’t want to marry me…must mean he’s just not into me.  He works late often…he’s not just not that into me.  He ignores me during a rugby match…you get my drift?

My boyfriend at the time certainly heard all about it.  I asked him a truly ridiculous question (neither of us even remember what I asked) that just us women could come up with (in times of PMS). 

The poor man stared at me in total confusion, probably wondering what I was on about this time.

After a long speech I told him: You’re not that into me , right. 

Wrong, he said.  I’m into you plenty.

But Oprah said..

It eventually turned out that I was just not that into him.

With my holidays nearly at an end, I moved on to Amsterdam, a novel by Ian McEwan and also a Booker Prize winner.

Usually I steer clear of novels that win prizes and then emblazen it across the cover.  Those kinds of book create much expectation and I give up half way, as they are normally too metaphoric for me.

This one however was short – 178 pages in soft cover, so I gave it a go.  I’m glad I did.

The story starts at the funeral of Molly Lane who died from some sort of dementia.  She went from being healthy to crazy in no time at all.

 A gathering is held at a crematorium, since her husband refuses to have a funeral or memorial service.  The gathering has assembled her former lovers, who also continued befriending her and each other over the years.

Two of the attendees consider themselves very good, if not best friends – one is a famous composer Clive Linley and the other Vernon Halliday, editor at a highbrow daily newspaper. 

Also in attendance is another former lover the rising politician, Julian Garmony, who might be the next Prime Minister of Britain. 

After the gathering Clive and Vernon form a pact to assist each other with suicide if either of them get to the point where they can no longer make decisions for themselves.

It is quite obvious that the best friends are so only because of their relationships with Molly, but not long after their pact, they each have to make a moral decision in their professions – which has a disasterous impact on their friendship.

The characters make their decisions and we the reader watch the deck of cards falling.

The story is brilliantly told – you feel like you’re watching a train-wreck about to happen and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Great book…great ending.

My holiday reading just picked up with a delicious novel One for the Money by Janet Evanovich.

The book is a first in a hilarious series about a bounty hunter, Stephanie Plum, who fell into the FTA (fail to appear) game when she was was retrenched from her job as a lingerie buyer.

After 6 months of selling off most her belongings, she bribes her cousin Vinnie into letting her work as a bounty hunter, chasing a cop accussed of murder. The reward of $10 000 is far too much for a broke New Jersey girl to walk away from.

The person she is chasing also happen to be a childhood crush, Joe Morelli.

Inbetween chasing Joe and dealing with her mother’s match-making schemes, the shorts wearing Stephanie attempts to solve a murder, learns to shoot a gun, steal a car and becomes a favourite for police gossip.

This book is well written,  fun, light, page turner. I will definitely be returning to Stephanie Plum’s adventures soon.