Take that, The Help.
30 November 2012
Remember when Kathryn Stockett's novel The Help was all the rage?
Personally, I remember trying to force my way through the first fifty pages, and then tossing it away in disgust, wondering, once again, how a white woman got away with* writing such terrible, stereotypical dialect.
Well, if you didn't care for that book (or maybe if you did, and you're looking for a different perspective), read bell hooks's elegant takedown of it** (and others of its ilk).*** It's everything I always wanted to say about The Help, except that she put it way, way better than I ever could. (One of my favorite bits? "hooks took aim, specifically, at fashionable best-selling novels that romanticize the idea of inter-racial sisterhood and have reduced the idea of feminine solidarity across cultures into light, feel-good sentimental tripe.")
That is all. Now get thee home and read some Shirley Jackson so you're all ready for next week's Book Menage.
*Got away with? More like made out like a bandit with.
**Thanks to Bookslut for the link.
***To be clear: the article is actually a journalist's article about a talk given by bell hooks on this subject.