Books #33-34: The Book Thief and The Help
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The Book Thief has been on my bookshelf and reading list for quite some time. I'd discovered it while looking through interesting audiobooks to download and I made a note of it. Soon, it began appearing on bestseller lists and book blogs so I determined to read it. I picked up a copy at the local secondhand book shop and brought it home. For some reason though, I didn't crack it open until 2 weeks ago, over 2 years since I'd bought it.
Before I say anything else about this book,I must say that it made me ache, both in happiness and sadness. Zusak has this amazing ability with words and metaphor. He would use an image or word that I would never have associated with another, and it would fit perfectly. His characterizations were at once incredibly simple and complex. I fell in love with all of the characters, but especially the protagonist, Liesel Meminger.
I loved the structure of this book. Narrated by Death, it is divided into several parts, and chapters within those parts. The prose is intimate yet strangely detached. We see into the hearts of the characters, but remain at a distance. This is, of course, because Death is not human. He is baffled by humanity, but yearns to save them, and redeem them. There was a moment in the book where Death describes picking up the souls of Jewish prisoners who have fled off a cliff, cradling them in his arms. I nearly broke down in the cafe where I was reading, and had to stop for a while.
This is one of the saddest books I have ever read. Tragedy washes over Liesel at every turn. But there is an unstoppable joy as well. Liesel discovers joy through reading with her Papa, stealing books and food with her best friend Rudy, and drawing with her secret basement-dweller Max.
The Book Thief is set in World War II stricken Germany, and the shadow of the war and the Fuhrer never leave the narrative. I think Zusak did a wonderful job of humanizing the people of Molching who were, on the surface, Nazi sympathizers. He showed that the ordinary people of Germany were both persecutors and victims, and ultimately, people who were just trying to survive and keep their families intact. I read in an interview that Zusak drew a lot from the experiences of his own family during the war, and that depth of understanding really shines through in the novel.
I'm so glad I finally decided to read this book. I don't know if it has changed my life or my ideas yet, but I do know that it has made me think about humanity, guilt, and the power of words to make life better.
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
This book is like literary crack. I don't mean in terms of quality; it's quite well-written. I mean that from the moment I opened it up as an ebook document on my computer, I was hooked. I tore through this book in record time, and I had a great time reading it.
The story of The Help starts in Jackson, Mississippi at the beginning of the Civil Rights Movement and culminates near Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. The story is very insular, and revolves around a small group of rather well-off women and the black ladies they employ as their domestic help. These black women are the heart of both the story and the community. They raise white babies and love them. They take care of the entire housekeeping and cleaning, and some are the backbone of the household itself. They also have to use separate toilet facilities.
This is where the true story begins. The first narrator (for there are three), Aibileen, is maid to the Leefolts, and loves their daughter, Mae Mobley, like her own. One day though, Hilly Hollbrook, who is cast as the major villain of the novel, convinces Elizabeth Leefolt to install a bathroom just for Aibileen to use, so that Aibileen will not spread her "diseases" to the family. Aibileen takes the insult without complaint, but a seed of bitterness is planted.
That seed continues to grow as Aibileen's best friend, Minny Jackson, is fired from her job and practically blacklisted around town. Minny, as the second narrator, dives into the fear of being a black woman targeted by white women, who are incredibly cruel when taking their revenge. The third narrator, a white woman named Skeeter Phelan, is desperate to become a successful journalist and embarks upon an ambitious project, to write an expose of the way Jackson women treat their help. Before long, this project envelopes all of their lives and leads them down a path that changes both them and their community.
Kathyrn Stockett writes all of her characters with a familiarity and warmth that is astounding. I'm aware that she based many of the characters on family, friends, and help she knew growing up. Their voices were rich and comforting, and when a chapter occurred that was narrated by an omnipresent third-person narrator, I was itching for the story to go back to one of the points of view of the three.
Every character changes and grows throughout the novel. Stockett doesn't take the easy way out, and malign all of one group or deify the other. She shows that both groups, black help and white employers, have their good and bad qualities. For every horror story and degrading insult Aibileen and the other maids tell, there is an equally beautiful and heartwarming tale of the love that exists between some of the maids and their families. The book explores the lines that are drawn between people, and whether those lines are real or created or even important at all.
This was my third book for my 2011 POC reading challenge.
View all my reviews
*****
So it's my last day at work! We have a half day today, and then tomorrow is the graduation ceremony. I then have two days to pack and get all my other shit done, and then I'm off!
