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Oh my, what a glorious book that was - a book written by a white woman about a white woman writing a book about the experiences, good and bad, of black maids in Tennessee in the 1960s. It was quite a change of pace for me and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The characters were divine, they fairly leapt off the page. There were some pretty bleak moments for the group of maids that chose to relate their experiences for the book but also some satisfying moments and glimpses of humour. At first the women were reluctant to talk for fear of repercussions from their, sometimes mean and vindictive, employers. But eventually they decide, one by one, to tell their stories, to open up the can of worms that was race relations in the American south in that era.

The women are smart, stoic, proud and hard working, some are sassy but all would wish their lives were just a little easier and a little fairer. The project snowballs and takes on a life of its own as we sneak a peek into the past and open the lid on white privilege and black servitude although the lines are not so cut and dried and the lines, in any case, are about to be smashed.

This book has generated some criticism for not accurately portraying the racism of that era and softening it in places with some kinder white characters. I wasn't there so I don't know but I was in Australia and I know that its not cut and dried here. In any case, it IS as work of fiction and not meant to be totally factual. I do think it gave a small insight to conditions in that time and place and I appreciated it in that context.