The Help, written by Kathryn Stockett is a superb book, with a superb storyline written with aplomb by a writer that does not look like me. And the reason it doesn’t make a difference to me whether ethnicity matters is the fact that the substance therein was riveting enough for me to know that in my hands was a book with substance and merit. If you ask me does it have a chance to be revered as a book that the masses would want to read you’re affirmed and not far off the mark if you embrace it like 1.1 million other people have already. To date it’s number 3 on the Publisher’s Weekly list of top selling novels purchased in hardcover and climbing. Sometimes quality and sales are not synonymous with sustained success, but this one is a winner. Remember William Styron’s ‘The Confessions of Nat Turner’ (1967)? Julia Keller of the Tribune Newspapers writes in a syndicated article that, “the last time a white writer tried to give a prolonged fictional voice to the thoughts and emotions of an oppressed black person in a major novel was devastating -- not for literature, but the man who wrote it.”  My contention relative to my point here is that time has a way of righting itself to infuse a bit of reality where good writing should be embraced celebrating any author who has the temerity of mind to write to their hearts content. William Styron would be chagrined that instead of ridicule and detestation, Ms Stockett who by now you’d know is white, has been given all kinds of accolades, with reviews (yours truly included) that are off the chain, and with sales that are reported to include a subsequent movie deal. The key to what I’d like to see happen would be for maturity to transcend stubborn moves of not giving authors of other persuasions a chance at literary parity.

I’ve always been a voracious reader. I’ll read anything and anyone as long as it’s a story that interests me I love STORIES! I read across the board and without regard to whether is black, blue, green or white. Would I like for white writers to read my peers and myself regularly? Would I love to see white readers read my fellow authors for   more understanding of what we want to convey? Absolutely! Susan Straight, one of my favorite writers never ceased to amaze me with the many books she’s written with Black characters and themes much different from what her peers would feel comfortable writing...but it’s this brazen ability to not let adverse criticism sway her penchant for writing the story she wants to write. If the story is good and the writer has adhered to the task of allowing the craft to justify the ink to be indelible and inscrutable, then I’m hooked! But as I’m monitoring the current literary Diaspora I’m mindful of the state as it pertain to all things literary and literal when it comes to the books written to audiences that authors routinely target them to and how they are marketed accordingly. I don’t want to be naive thinking the industry will not grow more tolerant of good storytelling written across lines of demarkation, but I wonder about a society that I feel allows racism to be an institution not willing to change how they perceive people different from their esthetics.  

I’m an idealist and pragmatic enough to believe that there’s room enough for readers to have good choices available and not have to worry about whether the writer is black or white, or comes from another disposition. Writers should write with passions and with enough inertia to want a larger base to work with. The literary world would be better with such changes, and certainly would give the industry ammunition to embrace and curry the inevitable changes on the horizon with the e-book phenomena and the electronic devices fueling the rage. Books and how they are read, will probably be much different down the road, but while the industry wait for this, make sure you don’t blink lest you miss the main point here. The African-American literary landscape has come a long way, and in some circles have earned the right to have an equal playing field as long as authors can continue to write exponentially with good stories where craft and credibility can support strength in numbers. Diverse storytelling has to be elevated for trust levels to validate whites crossing the line to read new material. I’m confident that it will get there, and I’m also confident that others will step up to join the ranks of writers against all odds will challenge status quo. I don’t want to be in any one else’s shoes but my own, so meanwhile, I’ll just keep on writing no matter what!