I’ve been reading late into the night. I decided to give a contemporary literature another try. I read The Help (Am I the last one on earth to do this?) and it drew me in with its female friendships and I will admit, the gossip. However, I realized by page 100 that I was reading nothing new: married women are portrayed as fools; men of both races are incompetent; mother-daughter relationships are mainly confrontational; single women are ultimately more free and happy. (I’m not defending spouse abuse.) To me, this book felt very raw and emotionally manipulative. This was supposedly a civil rights book, but it was nearly lost in its feminist propaganda. I’m more a fan of Phyllis Schlafly than Gloria Steinem. Please, I’m not accepting dissenting opinions on this. I know better than to open the Pandora’s box labeled, “Define and Defend your views on Feminism.”
I had a hard time finding “truth” in this book because the author demonized one race and idealized the other. I kept waiting for a functional white family. People aren’t so easily categorized and nowhere in this UNIVERSE do 24-year olds hold this much power in society. But her black characters were delightful. As a white chick, the lingo didn’t feel fake to me.
This book was highly influential in our menu planning this week. We had fried chicken… twice. I made potato salad and biscuits, too. Thank you.