现在的我实在是懒得够呛，除了为了维持生计，写那些充斥了公式和数字的文章之外，从不动笔，即便是昨天读完The Help之后心潮澎湃。但今天我终于受不了自己了，短短写上几句吧。
开始读The Help真是有趣。这是我在拿到Nook之后读的第一个sample。边读我边想，这Nook的电子书也做得太没有水准了吧，怎么满篇的语法错误。看到第四页的时候，我绝望了，赶紧去找别的书，看看是不是也这样。看了一圈，发现一切正常，我就怀着满心的好奇回到了这本第三人称单数动词不加s的书。我很庆幸我回来了。
The Help的故事发生在60年代的密西西比州。略知美国历史的人都知道那是种族隔离的时期，而密西西比州又是美国在种族问题上最保守的州之一。但是我以前不知道的是，在那时密西西比的几乎每一个白人家庭里都有黑人佣人，她们照顾白人小孩，洗衣，做饭，收拾家务，无一不能；有很多时候，她们为了这份佣人的工作，不得不把自己的小孩送人或是寄养。这有点像中国旧社会的奶妈，当然，那时的白人小孩是坚决不会被允许吃黑人的奶的。在叙事上，整部小说是以三个女主人公的自述交织而成的：Aibileen和Minny是两个黑人女佣，而Skeeter则是一个二十岁出头的，受过高等教育的白人女孩。如果不是Skeeter的作家梦，如果Skeeter没有想要写一本关于黑人女佣和她们的白人雇主之间的关系的书，如果Aibileen没有答应Skeeter的谈话的要求，她们的生活仍有交集，但她们的世界却不会有。借用书中的一段话：
We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.
衡量社会进步程度的重要标准之一就是人和人是不是平等，是不是有同样的机会；而人人平等的前提就是相信大家都是一样的，无论种族，无论性别，无论出身。The Help最想要表达的就是这个讯息。书中最让我感动的莫过于这些女人的勇敢和坚强。Aibileen成为了Skeeter的第一个被采访者和书的作者；Minny为了保护大家而坚持在书中加入了她所做的那件Terribly, Awful的事情；而Skeeter，这个本可以过着安逸生活的女孩，可以为了自己的梦想而承受被排挤、威胁、和抛弃。当读到Stuwart再次出现的时候，我以为Skeeter终于遇到了那个爱她，和她志同道合的人，但是，当听到Stuwart讲起他的前未婚妻的时候，我知道，他不是。我为Skeeter而惋惜，但当我的脑海里出现那个在纽约街头、形色匆匆的她的时候，我明白，他是她可以牺牲的。在这个世界上，抱怨的人太多，而有勇气改变些什么的人又太少。而这，正是她们美丽和迷人的地方。而且，她们还很可爱，我永远也忘不了Minny在Skeeter收到纽约的工作邀请而犹豫不决的时候说，
So don’t walk your white butt to New York, run it.
***********************************************************************************
Here is a summary of the book from BookBrowse.com:
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen’s best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody’s business, but she can’t mind her tongue, so she’s lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women — mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends — view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.
