So a few posts back I spoke about the fact that I had crawled into the pages of 'The Help'. Well with determination and utter engagement, I finished the book. My first in about a year. I finished in just in time for the movie release. I finished it on the Saturday night and saw the movie on the Sunday evening. What young girl is home, reading on a weekend night you may ask, well, I follow the traditions of my Jewish family and it was the breaking of the Yom Kippur fast. That meant we hosted a dinner at our house on the Saturday night. Phew. Felt I had to make up for my reading on the Saturday night thing. haha. Anywho, I loved the book, 5 million copies sold can't be wrong. Dealing with the interaction between white home owners and their maids during the 60's civil rights movement, all put in to a Mississippi pot and fueled with hairspray. Very interesting.
The movie was sweet but fluffed over a lot of the dark aspects in the book and refused to deal with the core issues. Which left me feeling unfulfilled. I also felt that the book did this in a lot of ways. She created such full, wholesome characters and story lines, and then as the book neared the end, the stories thinned out on detail and seemed to wrap up without reason. I hate it when that happens. Slap dash writing as far as I am concerned. Doesn't seem she was writing to a deadline as she approached over 60 publishers who turned her down, and it took her 5 years to write the thing. Perhaps it was a series of different editors with different editing styles. Either way, it seems thrown together towards the end. I loved it, but the ending could have had a little more power. As they say, some books are worth the read for the final paragraph. I just wish this one had been one of them. I felt like it could have gone on, but then the argument stands, when does it end.
So this is where I end. I have made my point. I enjoyed the book, the movie was well cast, well acted, the set and costume design was flawless. My only issue was the marrying of the book to the screenplay. Kathryn, I know you had a part to play, it seems you got played.
Read is a four letter word to me... I'm being sarcastic not literal of course.This is an ironic predicament because I adore the written word . I absorb so many online articles, magazines, and crosswords. I am filled with good intention. I mean my bookshelf is full of wonderful authors and stories.It seems I have a block. I will pick up a book, full of excitement, begin reading the first few pages, make it about a chapter in; it will hit my bedside table and there it will become the coaster on which I place my drinks and other items. It will gather dust and eventually be retired to the bookshelf... of death.
I have tried, I really have. In this entire year I have finished one whole book, which I started in December last year. Chuck Palahniuk's "Non-Fiction". The book is brilliant. I think I stopped reading it because I left it in a camera bag and forgot about it. Then I thought I was on a roll, so I promptly bought more books of the same ilk. More Chuck's, a Hunter S. Thompson. For a while I was even reading "When Hungry, Eat" by Joanne Fedler, I had heard good things about this book. Being a girl of the "curvy" persuasion I thought I'd give it a read. It was awesome for the first half. Then I got bored of being preached too. A fatty was telling another fatty to diet, please girl, fuck off. That is more than likely not the intended message and I cannot give it a full review as I never finished the book, oh like most diets HA HA.
So I then turned to Chuck again, one of my new purchases. One of his newer publications, "Rant". I thought this would be it, the one to break the curse. Nope, it too hit the shelves.
So then my mom mentioned that she had the much lauded book, "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. I had seen this book on the shelves of Exclusive books a while back and the black and white cover paired with the title really drew me too it. I had to read it. Then when I got to Cape Town my gran was raving to me about it. I had to read it. Then my mom had it.
Now I am reading it. I make no promises, I am a mere two chapters in, but I am liking it.
I'll fill you in at a later stage. Reading with me is a slow process, but then so is losing weight. HA HA.
