I really only read the book, because a friend of mine recommended the movie to me. Since I didn’t have the time to go watch it, I thought I’d read it.

Truth is, I didn’t read it.

I DEVOURED it.

No, seriously. There wasn’t any time of day, you’d see me without that book. Even at work. That’s right. I actually risked my job by reading at my desk.

And I can rightfully say, that hasn’t happened to me in a very long time.

It’s not that the book is so full of action you just can’t stop. On the contrary. The story itself unfolds slowly and progressively, and in the beginning hardly anything “exciting” happens. But it’s still interesting to read and I think it’s also important, because – for me – it established the basis for the following events of the book.

Written from the POV of three different (or are they?) women, the beginning of the book conveys a feeling of what it was like to live in that particular time period at that particular place. The reader gets a feeling for those three main characters; their day-to-day life, their past, their friends, relations, hopes, dreams and, of course, problems.

I don’t think, the book would’ve captured me that much, without that “point of reference”.

In the course of the story things get from bad to worse, but I wouldn’t have gotten this sense of grave danger, of this serious peril to life, if Kathryn Stockett hadn’t started with explaining how things “normally” were – and had always been up until that period of time. I really feared for those characters.

Like I said before, the change in pace happens slowly and gradually, but I wasn’t able to put that book away right from the start.

Even if it was really a bitch to read.

I’m not a native English speaker, and reading all that text in early-sixties-help-slang was… challenging, to say the least. But after a while I got used to it, and – thankfully – it really wasn’t all that difficult anymore. Plus, whenever there’s a chapter told from Miss Skeeter’s POV, you get your “usual”, school-taught English for a break.

Anyway, I wasn’t deterred and it was more than worth it.

And since I’ve found the time to see the movie by now…

*SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS*

Yeah, well. Having read the book first, I don’t think anyone’s surprised that I didn’t like the movie that much. I mean, I get that they had to shorten a LOT, because otherwise they’d have had a, like, 10 hour movie or so, but… still. I think, they’ve shortened the wrong events. I mean, I hated how they’ve changed Skeeter’s mother, because imo she really didn’t deserve to be the “good” one at the end.

Plus, Mae Mobley was so, SO much more than just a poor, neglected child. Come on! The whole “Miss Taylor” thing? SO IMPORTANT! The whole Aibileen-slowly-trying-to-parent-Mae-Mobley-into-a-tolerant-and-open-minded-human-being thing? SO IMPORTANT! For that, they could’ve left out “The Boyfriend”, because in the movie he had no meaning at all. Or they could’ve cut half the scenes with Skeeter and her mother. Really.

Well, I guess they managed to get the gist of the book across, anyway, but that just wasn’t good enough for me. I’d rather read the book again.