The Help - Kathryn Stockett

I feel like I am one of the few book bloggers left not to have read this one. I have to be shallow and say that one reason I was reluctant to pick this book up was the cover - I think it looks so bland and uninviting! Now that I have read the book the cover - and its significance - resonates with me more.

The Help is broadly a story of the social and political times in Mississippi in the 1960's - but more specifically it is a story of the relationships of and between women and races in that time and place. Three women in particular are the narrators in The Help; Aibileen, an African American woman who has worked as a maid and nanny for white families since her adolescence, Skeeter, a young white society woman who has just returned home from college and Minny (my favourite character in many ways and for many reasons), a middle aged African American woman with a gift for cooking and sassy remarks and comebacks.

Skeeter is in a way the catalyst for the main storyline that takes place in the book. Skeeter wants to be a writer but in her home town of Jackson there aren't a whole lot of opportunities for her to practice her craft so she ends up taking a job writing a domestic and home help advice column for the local paper. As a privileged white woman of the time Skeeter does not have a lot of experience in this area which is why she connects with Aibileen - the maid of one her old school friends. It is Aibileen who gives Skeeter the input for her columns - and a tentative relationship begins between the two women which leads to another writing project - one that is much more important and more dangerous for all of the women involved.

I am blown away by how much this book - both the story and the issues it raised - have impacted on me - it was a powerful reading experience. The story was built beautifully - each character had the time and space devoted to them for them to be able to tell the reader their own story - it felt like a collaborative effort. The book had tension, humour, warmth and connection. The section at the end of the book where the author speaks about her own experiences of growing up in Mississippi, and how she reconciled writing in the voice of an African American woman, was a great way to end the story and added a level of authenticity. I don't know how this author will be able to follow up this effort but I am definitely looking forward to her trying!

The Spy Game - Georgina Harding

Yet again another gorgeous book cover that caught my eye and drew me in! I keep falling for these amazing covers and thankfully, for the most part at least, there are wonderful stories and writing within them.

The Spy Game focuses on 8 year old Anna and her older brother Peter and covers the time in the early 1960's when their mother disappears and the children are told that she is dead even though they are never allowed to see her body or attend a funeral or a burial. Peter begins to take Anna on a mesmerising journey forcing her to think about the mother she knew - where did she come from and what happened on the day that she died and the days leading up to that day. The political and social climate of the day is woven into the book and Peter and Anna start to regard their mother in a new light when they consider her Eastern European background and the fact of her sudden death and disappearance in their lives. This questioning continues into the children's adult lives, particularly Anna's, as she travels back to her mother's homeland to explore and pose her questions there.

I found this book completely absorbing - I have heard it compared to Ian McEwan's Atonement and while I certainly didn't think it was as amazing as that book it does share some similar qualities. I still have so many unanswered questions of my own having now finished the book and while that frustrated me at first I have come to accept that this may well be part of the experience of this book - just as Anna and Peter will continue to question, so does the reader.

The Easter Parade - Richard Yates

Inspired by Claire's post about the Vintage Classics editions of Richard Yates' books I went out searching for one. I fully confess to seeking out the books based only on their glorious vintage/retro covers - truly shallow I know but at least I am being honest! I have been tempted to see the movie of Yates' Revolutionary Road (mainly for the gorgeous and talented Kate Winslet) but I have heard so many scary stories about the movie being quite "dark and depressing" that I have stayed away from the movie version and the book.

The book store I visited yesterday only had a couple of the Vintage Classic editions so I ended up buying The Easter Parade - first published in 1976.

From the opening lines of the book I was hooked;

"Neither of the Grimes sisters would have a happy life, and looking back it always seemed that the trouble began with their parents' divorce. That happened in 1930, when Sarah was nine years old and Emily five"

From the very outset you certainly have a clear picture that this book is not going to be a happily ever after kind of book - and yet I loved it. It felt honest and raw and sharp - you were in this story for better or for worse.

The book covers the lives of the Grimes sisters from the time of their parents' divorce until they are middle aged women - each with very different life experiences and outlooks. The book is told from the perspective of the younger sister, Emily, and it is told with brutal honesty for the most part even though you sense, at times, that Emily really doesn't have a lot of insight into her life.

I absolutely devoured this book and I will be looking out for all of Yates' other work - starting with Revolutionary Road.

When I Am Not Reading...

These days I am becoming a little obsessed with the TV show Mad Men and it is taking up a bit of my non reading time.

For those of you who don't know the show is set in New York in the 1960's and the main focus is an elite advertising agency where the men make the ads and the women support the men - at work and at home. Despite the era that the show is set in (or maybe because of it) the strength of the women characters comes through in so many ways - and the fashion is gorgeous! I can actually watch this show and imagine myself in these outfits. I'm only mid way through series one at the moment so I'm looking forward to more to come!

I am loving watching a show set in the 1960's so I am wondering if anyone can suggest some great books set in this era??