The movie, "The Help" is very true to the book. The casting is perfect. I love Emma Stone as Skeeter, Bryce Dallas Howard as Hilly, and Ahna O'Reilly as Elizabeth. If I had done the casting, I would have had Selma Blair as Skeeter, and Reese Witherspoon as Hilly, but I would have been half a generation off. It was important to the story that these characters all be very young.
And the clothes. I would take every piece of Skeeter's wardrobe, even though our coloring is completely different, I'm plenty of pounds heavier, and 2 decades older. Well, every piece except the plaid jumper, but if it was all or nothing I'd take that too.
If you haven't read the book yet, you need to stop procrastinating and read it. The Help is set in the deep South, during the time of the early civil rights struggle. These 20 something women were hiring African Americans twice their age to raise their children, clean their houses, and do their cooking, all for less than minimum age. As a Northerner, it seems ridiculous that this was happening in the 1950s and even 60's. The story is told from the perspective of Skeeter, who is a college educated single woman, coming home after graduation to rejoin all of her high school friends, who are married and lunching while the help takes care of their children. Skeeter can see the hypocrisy in loving the "help" who raises you, and then hiring her and treating her poorly while the same person raises your children. She convinces some of the "help" to tell their stories, and publishes them.
If you find that you just don't have time to read one more book, in this case, you could see the movie and get the full story.
Still reading: Left Neglected by Lisa Genova. I am tearing through this book, and can't wait to tell you about it when I finish!
Still listening to: The Tale of Halcyon Crane by Wendy Webb
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