Two Mini-Reviews-- Room and The Help (because I am lazy)

My goal is to do at least one review a week, so here I am. I've read quite a bit lately, but I don't really feel the urge to write about many of them in detail. So here goes two mini-reviews.

Room by Emma Donoghue

I'm sure you're really sick of hearing about this book. Perfect for mini-review status. The basic premise is that a mother and son are held captive in a single room. I had difficulty getting into this book at first. While I like the idea of Jack as a kid, I didn't really dig him as the narrator. It made me really uncomfortable. Maybe that was the point. For those who have read it, the creamy left (or right, I don't remember), seriously grossed me out. It took me a while to even feel comfortable with her nursing her then five-year old, but I can see how under the circumstances, maybe I would too if it increased his chances of survival.

Sorry for that random thought. I was really surprised with where the author went halfway through the book, but surprised in a good way. The effects on both captives in a situation like this span much farther than I had expected. I guess what shocked me the most, was to find that this actually has happened in real life. Several times. That made me a little queasy just typing that. What is wrong with some people!?! I would recommend Room, but with a few caveats. This is not light fare, and much of it is pretty disturbing.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I had zero idea what this was about when I started reading this. I was in for a bit of a shock when I started reading the narrative by Aibileen, an African-American maid working for a white family. I was really bothered at first that a white woman from a privileged background had the audacity to write a character with that dialect. Once I got to Minny's section, and realized that she had a unique voice, I settled down a bit.  Once it got going, it was a real page-turner (although Aibileen's sections were a little slower to get through because of the dialect). My husband was out of town when I started it and because I didn't have him to tell me to turn off the light, I stayed up way too late reading it. It was worth the lost sleep.

I loved that it took on race relations from a different point of view than anything I'd read before. Racism is most definitely learned. People aren't born that way. Parents (and even teachers as shown in the book) teach children to hate. Although, I have learned this through my own experience, I loved how Stockett showed this through Aibileen's experience raising white children. It was interesting also that this book also focuses on the effect of indifference. There were plenty that may not have agreed with what was going on, but their indifference or fear of others made them an ally to the racists. Overall, I would highly recommend The Help. It was a great story of courage in the face of losing everything. My only complaint was that I wished the story hadn't ended. I want to know what happened to Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. I really came to love them.

After finishing typing these, they aren't as mini as I was hoping. Whoops!