Writer Kathryn Stockett's life has seen some big changes since the success of her debut novel, The Help. It's set in the early 1960s and is about black maids and the women they serve. It got on the New York Times bestseller list in March 2009 and is still there, having sold almost two million copies. Next comes a movie version starring Sissy Spacek.
So what happens when you have that kind of success? As revealed in an article in the Washington Post, lots of things. Stockett got to be on the movie set for several weeks, she's lost count of the number of interviews she's given, and the former stay-at-home mother is now traveling the world.
Her biggest thrill, she says, has been "I get to talk to authors that I've admired so much all my life." These include the Pulitzer Prize-winning dramatist Beth Henley.
Stockett, who is White, also has taken some flak for representing Black women who worked as servants, but she based the novel on her relationship to a Black maid who worked for her family for decades and raised her, her father, and her uncle.
In the midst of all the tumult, she's been working on her second novel as well.
It's an interesting insight into what happens to a quiet life when great success strikes. Of course even a successful author, unlike a movie star, is seldom recognized and has a great deal of control over how much exposure he or she wants. Sounds like a good problem to have!
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