Кэтрин Стокетт - The Help / Прислуга. Книга для чтения на английском языке

The Help is fiction, by and large. Still, as I wrote it, I wondered an awful lot what my family would think of it, and what Demetrie would have thought too, even though she was long dead. I was scared, a lot of the time, that I was crossing a terrible line, writing in the voice of a black person. I was afraid I would fail to describe a relationship that was so intensely influential in my life, so loving, so grossly stereotyped in American history and literature.

I was truly grateful to read Howell Raines’s Pulitzer Prizewinning article, “Grady’s Gift”:

There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism.

I read that and I thought, How did he find a way to put it into such concise words? Here was the same slippery issue I’d been struggling with and couldn’t catch in my hands, like a wet fish. Mr. Raines managed to nail it down in a few sentences. I was glad to hear I was in the company of others in my struggle.

Like my feelings for Mississippi, my feelings for The Help conflict greatly. Regarding the lines between black and white women, I am afraid I have told too much. I was taught not to talk about such uncomfortable things, that it was tacky, impolite, they might hear us.

I am afraid I have told too little. Not just that life was so much worse for many black women working in the homes in Mississippi, but also that there was so much more love between white families and black domestics than I had the ink or the time to portray.

What I am sure about is this: I don’t presume to think that I know what it really felt like to be a black woman in Mississippi, especially in the 1960s. I don’t think it is something any white woman on the other end of a black woman’s paycheck could ever truly understand. But trying to understand is vital to our humanity. In The Help there is one line that I truly prize:

Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize, We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.

I’m pretty sure I can say that no one in my family ever asked Demetrie what it felt like to be black in Mississippi, working for our white family. It never occurred to us to ask. It was everyday life. It wasn’t something people felt compelled to examine.

I have wished, for many years, that I’d been old enough and thoughtful enough to ask Demetrie that question. She died when I was sixteen. I’ve spent years imagining what her answer would be. And that is why I wrote this book.

a = of abusive( adj ) – оскорбительный

ain’t = is not, have not albeit( cj ) – ( уст. ) хотя

asshole( n ) – ( груб. ) задница

awe( v ) – благоговеть

bafle( v ) – расстраивать (планы); сбивать с толку

ballpark( n ) – огороженная площадка для игры с мячом

baloney( n ) – копченая колбаса

bawdy( adj ) – непристойный

berate( v ) – ( разг. ) ругать, бранить

blab( v ) – разболтать

bleach( n ) – отбеливатель

blight( n ) – упадок, гибель, разочарование; насекомые на растениях

blind date( n ) – свидание вслепую

bold( adj ) – отчетливый, рельефный; наглый

bout = about brine( v ) – солить, засаливать

bristle( v ) – рассердиться, рассвирепеть

brung = brought

cable-knit( adj ) – связанный узором

cadillac = cardiac callus( n ) – мозоль

cartilage( n ) – хрящ

cause = because chilluns = children chores( n ) – работа по дому

clavicle( n ) – ( анат. ) ключица

cleavage( n ) – вырез (на платье)

cobbler( n ) – напиток из вина с сахаром, лимоном и льдом

commercial (n) – рекламный ролик

compulsive( adj ) – вынужденный; принудительный

condescending( adj ) – снисходительный

contemptible( adj ) – презренный

conundrum( n ) – загадка, головоломка

cotton boll( n ) – хлопковая коробочка

crack-whip( n ) – кнут, хлыст

cringe( v ) – съеживаться

cuss( v ) – ругаться

dawdle( v ) – бездельничать, зря тратить время

deadline( n ) – последний срок

deft( adj ) – умелый, ловкий

diamonds( n ) – ( карт. ) бубны

doe-nob = door-knob dorm( n ) – ( амер. ) студенческое общежитие

dough( n ) – тесто, паста, густая масса

downtown( n ) – центр города

dressing( n ) – заправка для салата, соус

dumbfound( v ) – ошеломлять

dumpling( n ) – клецка; яблоко, запеченное в тесте

eerie( adj ) – жуткий, мрачный

eggplant( n ) – баклажан

em = them everday = everyday exempt( adj ) – освобожденный; изъятый

faze( v ) – беспокоить, досаждать

fella = fellow fib( v ) – обманывать, лгать

fiddlehead( n ) – ( сленг ) тупица, чурбан

fidget( v ) – суетиться; нервировать; ерзать

filament( n ) – нить (накала); волокно, волосок

flunk( v ) – провалиться (на экзамене)

font( n ) – источник; ( церк. ) купель

frantic( adj ) – неистовый, безумный