Books Reviews
by L. Arthalia Cravin

Last week I read two books that might be of interest. The first book was entitled, “Same Kind of Different as Me,” by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. It was published in 2006. The book is written with alternating chapters of two writers, one white, the other black. Both men grew up in Navarro County, not far from Corsicana during the late 1950s and early 60s. The early setting for the book was of particular interest to me because my maternal grandparents migrated to Frost, Texas, about 30 miles from Corsicana, about this same time to work as sharecroppers, picking and chopping “Blackland” cotton. I actually lived in Frost, Texas from 1959 to 1962 with my sharecropper grandparents and pulled cotton from many of the long, crocked rows, of cotton patches that surrounded the two-room share-cropper shack we lived in. I could identify well with Denver Moore’s story about working from “can’t to can’t” (can’t see in the morning to can’t see in the evening,”) being paid 50 cents an hours for working in the cotton fields, the outright racism, and never getting any money because of the “company store,” practice of always keeping sharecroppers in debt. Even though I was only 8 or 9 at the time, I fully understood how Denver Moore grew up and why he eventually landed in Angola Prison in Louisiana, how he hopped a freight train to California, then wound up at a Mission in Ft Worth. It was Ron Hall’s story that was so different from mine and Denver Moore’s upbringing.

Ron Hall went to college, then became a wealthy art dealer, making more money on one art deal that my all my ancestors combined could ever dream of making. His lived the typical privileged life of a white man. The kicker is how Hall eventually crossed paths with Denver Moore at a Ft. Worth Mission orchestrated by and through Ron’s Hall devoutly Christian wife Deborah who urged him to get involved with helping the poor. As the story unfolds these two men, from miles-apart social and economic backgrounds, eventually meet and begin a friendship. The friendship lasts through the death of Deborah from cancer– and beyond. The story of their meeting, their different lives, their sameness, and continuing friendship led to a book well worth the read.

Ron Hall and Denver Moore will be in Amarillo for a book signing on April 7th and 8th so mark you calendars.

The second book that I read—or listened to on DVD was called “The Help” written by Kathryn Stockett, published in 2009. This book is not available in any Amarillo Public Library except to get on a long waiting list. The DVD, consisting of 15 disks, each requiring about one and one-half hour to hear, is at the North Branch Library. So if you decide to check out the DVD, be prepared to devote 30 hours to listening to the story of domestics workers (maids) in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. I had major trouble with Stockett’s story and felt that she pushed the limits of believability with most of the book. The crux of the book is that of a well-to-do white woman, nicknamed Skeeter, who graduates from college and returns to Jackson, Mississippi to her daddy’s big house that is surrounded by rich cotton fields and black helpers. She is a “cotton Trust Fund” daughter whose future wealth is assured, yet she longs to be a writer. She is rejected as an assistant editor for a major publisher, Harper and Row, but winds up writing a “domestic column,” called Miss Myrna, for a Jackson, Mississippi newspaper. The column was designed to help well-off white women keep things clean around the house. Knowing nothing about housekeeping because her household always had maids, Skeeter turns to a maid (Minnie) to help her answer cleaning questions about just everything. She eventually comes up with the idea of having the maids turn the tables and tell the truth about the folks they are working for. She finally convinces twelve maids (under promise of complete unanimity) to write or tell her what it’s like being a maid. Infused into the various stories told by the maids are issues of 1960s segregation, including one maid’s employer who began an “initiative” to get separate bathrooms for maids to keep “those women” from using the inside toilets. What unfolds is the paradox of white women not wanting black women to sit at the same table with them to eat, requiring them to use separate dishware and utensils, to use the rear entrance, and of course not to use the same toilet, but at the same time these same black maids are raising their kids, including kissing, hugging, bathing, potty training, telling them who to call “mama,” and teaching them basic manners. One story goes over the edge about what a maid put in a chocolate pie to spite a former white boss who fired her then spread rumors that she was a thief. One maid’s story is hilarious because she finds herself working for “po’ white trash” who married wealthy but who can’t boil water, but doesn’t want her husband to know that she has hired a maid to teach her to cook. One day a naked white man shows up outside the kitchen window by the pool playing with his “ding-a-ling” and asking the maid if she wanted some “pecker pie.” But much of the book is no laughing matter because it reminds black women of the extent of the subjugation we have suffered in service to white women to help them manage their homes, husbands, and children—too often to the detriment of our own households. I had problems with why Stockett portrayed one maid as unable to speak correct English, especially any word using the letter “s” but, at the same time the children the maid was raising spoke grammatically correct, until the last page of the book when a white 4 year old said, “You is.” I think Stockett went out of her way to try to reinforce general stereotypes about black women’s general grammar, personal hygiene about washing their hair, and other matters that she should have left out of the book. Instead of dispelling so many false myths she reinforced them. When the maids told their stories to “turn the tables” on their white women bosses, Stockett did not point out the same inadequacies and shortcomings of white women. Stockett could have done a lot more with the maid’s stories, but of course she was completely out of her league and had no basis in reality from which to work. That was my problem with Stockett’s novel. It was originally rejected by 50 agents. I can see why.

Copyright 2010 - L. Arthalia Cravin. All rights Reserved. No part of this commentary may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without written permission from the author.