The Help: Nonfiction Problems in a Fictional Work

I devoured Kathryn Stockett's The Help this past weekend and while I liked it, (but didn't LOVE it) I loved all of the questions it brought up for me as both a reader and a writer. If you haven't read The Help I suggest you do and if you don't like to read novels, don't worry, the movie will be out this summer.

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960s and told through three first-person povs (plus one chapter in third person). The narrators are Skeeter, a young coed just home from Ole Miss, and two black maids: Aibileen, and Minny. Skeeter wants to be a writer and hopes that a book of interviews of Jackson's Black help will put her establish a literary career. The book chronicles much of that journey.

Stockett writes the two black maids' voices in dialect which bothered me a little (spelling Lord "Law" doesn't seem necessary) but what these voices made me ask was: whose story is this to tell? As Skeeter transcribes the stories of maids, changes their names and surely captures their dialect, does she question if this is her story to tell? If we could see some of that moral dilemma in Skeeter, we could assume that dilemma exists for Stockett as well. But Skeeter never asks, "Is it my place to tell these stories?" She wonders if maids will talk to her. She fears the danger the book will create for them. She worries that no one will read the book, but she never considers that it might not be her place to tell these stories at all.

Then I read about the lawsuit. Stockett's brother's maid, Ablene Cooper, is suing Stockett for using her likeness to inform Aibileen Clark. I wonder if Stockett asked Cooper to read the manuscript just to make sure her character was fictionalized enough for her comfort. What was the L-shaped crack that made Cooper feel taken advantage of by the author?

As I work on my next memoir I'm making a list of all my middle school friends who will need to read this manuscript before I publish. It is my book, but it is a story we all share. I want them to tell me if they want names changed or details removed. I want them to be able to read the book and say, yes, this is true to those years and to my experiences with Nori. 

I enjoyed The Help and appreciate that Stockett decided to "go big or go home" as my friend Amy put it, but I also think writers are required to respect the people they characterize in whatever story they choose tell.

20 Works of Creative Nonfiction Worth Reading

I don't get why creative nonfiction has such a bad name. Maybe it's because the name itself is confusing and contradictory, but in a genre which encompasses so much, why the hate? While working on my mfa, I wrote both fiction and creative nonfiction. Many of my colleagues and mentors asked, why write memoirs or essays rather than novels and short stories? In a fiction workshop, the leader asked about my favorite books and when all my top picks were fiction he asked, "So, why are you studying creative nonfiction?" All I know is that cnf works for many of the stories I have to tell. Looking back at a previous post, 10 Books That Influenced Me... I mention several few works of creative nonfiction, but there are many others so, if you've turned your back on memoirs, or have been burned by a few bad essay collections, here are 20 works of creative nonfiction I recommend.

1. I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou
2. The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
3. In Cold Blood: A True Account of a Multiple Murder and Its Consequences by Truman Capote
4. A Heart-Breaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers 
5. Seabiscuit: An American Legend by Laura Hillenbrand
6. An Unquiet Mind: A Memoir of Moods and Madness by Kay Redfield Jamison
7. The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
8. On Writing by Stephen King
9. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
10. American Ground: Unbuilding the World Trade Center by William Langewiesche
11. Blackbird: A Childhood Lost and Found by Jennifer Lauck
12. Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt 
13. Three Cups of Tea: One Man's Mission to Promote Peace... One School at a Time by Greg Mortenson
14. Dreams of My Father: A Story of Race and Inheritance by Barrack Obama
15. Running in the Family by Michael Ondaatje
16. True Notebooks: A Writer's Year at Juvenile Hall by Mark Salzman
17. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
18. Lucky by Alice Sebold
19. The Complete Maus by Art Speigleman 
20. Night by Elie Wiesel

What great nonfiction have I missed?

Neko Cats of Mar Vista

I've always loved how many of the neighborhood businesses in Mar Vista display a Neko cat. If you don't know much about these Japanese felines, they are good luck charms for businesses welcoming customers.  When I was a kid we had a troublesome cat named Neko but these ceramic ones are pretty low-maintenance.

Marilyn's Beauty Salon Nekos.

Venice Grind Neko.

Tattoo Lounge Nekos.

Mechie Neko.

L & R Barber Shop Neko.

Cornmeal Pancakes

These pancakes look perfect. They are golden and photographed beautifully, but they were heavy and not delicious. Here is a link to the recipe I used, but if anyone has one that is tasty, I'd love to try my hand at another batch.

Day Three: Oven Pancakes...

Growing up these were my special occasion pancakes. Mom would make these German Oven Pancakes for my birthday and they've always been one of my favorites with powdered sugar sprinkled on top.  Nom, nom, nom...






For about two servings of Oven Pancakes
pre-heat oven to 450

Place 2 tablespoons of butter in a pie plate and set in the oven while you beat together

3 eggs
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup milk


Once the butter is melted, pour the batter in the center of the plate and bake in oven for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle with powered sugar and enjoy immediately!

Cake Batter Pancakes?

I saw this recipe on Tracey's Culinary Adventures and thought, hmm, Cake Batter Pancakes, a little redundant, but worth a shot. She used sprinkles in her version and thinks she'll use chocolate next time. I have my own adjustments as well.

I loved the smell of the batter (cake mix, mmmm) but the taste didn't transfer so much. I probably should have cooked them less. The middle was moist and and delicious but the edges were a bit tough. Next time I'll use frosting, probably cream cheese, and not the gel frosting and sanding sugar I had in the cupboard.  Still, worth trying and I will probably attempt these again with a few adaptations.



Cake Batter Pancakes

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2/3 cup yellow cake mix
1 tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Combine dry ingredients and then add wet...

2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-2 cups milk
sprinkles

It's Pancake Week!

 Never heard of it (but this can't be a bad thing) so I'm waking up a little earlier than usual this week in order to celebrate a few of my favorite pancake recipes and try some new ones too.

First up, my standard recipe, Maine Pancakes: a little lemon juice apparently makes a lot of difference.

I halved the recipe this morning for just David and I but here is the full one:

2 cups flour
3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp soda
3 tbsp sugar

combine dry ingredients

In another bowl

2 eggs well beaten
1 3/4 cups milk
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/4 cup melted butter

stir together wet, add dry and voila!
I did this recipe first (the one Mom used to make back in the day) to help set the bar for pancakes to come. Happy Pancake Week!

Best Foods Ever!

Mmmm. Chocolate chip cookies.

It's been so many meals since I last posted about food and since my most trafficked blog was about food trucks you would think that I would have returned to the topic sooner but it's taken a while. Last February both of my blogs were about food (cookies and hot dogs) so here are three more tasty food lists!

Top foods I make at home and don't get tired of:
(recipes available upon request)

Mexico City: mole and margaritas...

beef stew served over rice
chocolate chip cookies
turkey chili with David's cornbread

Mexican meals I could eat every day of the week:
Mexico City's chicken mole
Poquito Mas's chicken maschiladas
Chipotle's barbacoa burrito

Favorite prepared grocery store foods:
Whole Foods' old fashioned chicken salad (with sourdough baguette from La Brea Bakery and Midnight Moon cheese)
Tuscan Tomato Bisque from Vons/Pavillions/Safeway
Baked Cheddar Cheese Ruffles
Haagan Dazs coffee ice cream

Try them all. They come highly recommended.
Have any favorites I've missed?
Nom nom nom nom nom.

Snow Day!

Bend had a snow day today. Thought I'd share this excerpt from Through Eyes Like Mine because I miss those snow days real bad.

I

 wake up and it's still dark outside. I don't need to look out the window to know it snowed last night. From my cocoon of warm blankets, I hear a car pass by the house. Cars sound totally different driving down roads covered in snow. They move in near silence or with the hum of chains on their tires. My alarm goes off and I reach into the cold room to turn it off. I don't want to get up. Maybe enough snow fell to cancel school. The excitement of this possibility wakes me up completely. 

I hold my breath and jump from the warmth of bed into the cold of my bedroom. I sprint downstairs to stand by the woodstove in the living room. Mom makes breakfast in the kitchen and outside snow continues to fall. It was snowing last night when I went to bed and it still hasn't stopped. A clean white blanket covers the grass and the houses wear a thick layer of marshmallow fluff. Tree branches droop with the snow's weight making them look old and weary. From a glance at the fence posts it looks like at least eight inches have fallen. 

Mom carries a teakettle into the living room. She sets it on top of the woodstove and several water droplets dance on the iron top before hissing into steam. "No school today, Nori. Snow day."

"Yes," I say and smile.

So, how are your book sales going?

Today at the end of a long day at my second job (teaching), one of my colleagues asked about my first job (writing). "So, how's your book selling?"

I told him things were going okay, but that it was hard to know. This is what I've thought about since then:  well, I haven't cracked any best-seller's lists, after toying with sales rankings in the thousands on Amazon in December I've fallen to the hundreds of thousands in February. But my dad, he's practically sold 100 copies on his own. You can now find my book in real life places (Between the Covers in Bend, the Nikkei Legacy Center in Portland) and buy it or order is from bookstores like Powell's. So I don't really know how sales are going. I wish there was a magic formula to stimulate the book, some tipping point when sales would accelerate and I wouldn't know every person who has read or ordered the book. As of right now though, my goal of 10,000 copies seems impossible, but maybe I won't feel that way in another three months. I guess I'll have to wait and see.

So, I've arranged a bunch or words in a particular order and put it between two covers. Any takers?