The Help

The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
530 pages; Paperback
2009

Many gals have recommended this book to me, so I was really excited when Mint came for Christmas break she had nearly finished the story and said i could read it next (I'm sure Hannah found a day to read it too during the holidays).
This story is written with such wonderful description that I’m not sure I ever want to go back to Mississippi again, but I do hope that many changes for good have taken place since the 1960’s when The Help took place. Set in a very volatile time in US southern history, this novel draws the readers in from the beginning as you meet in the first few chapters three women whose lives intermingle throughout the course of 500 plus pages. Abileen is who I like best as she is kind, honest and brave. She has a wonderful way with children and although her only child, a son, died as a young adult, she has raised nearly 20 children over her life-time as a maid for various families in Jackson, Mississippi. Minnie, also a maid (and a sassy one at that) is a friend of Abileen’s and her tenacity and spunk jump right off the pages. Skeeter, young, single, white and desiring to be an author, embarks on a project that changes her life and the lives of many in Jackson forever.
Richly told in the vernacular and from the point of view of these three women, readers gain insight into the values, fears, families and friendships of those who live on both sides of a very definite line, a line that seldom was crossed. Early on in the story, Abileen describes the woman she works for and concludes with the statement, “But the help always know.” And that is exactly what we discover in the story that turns out to be a book inside of a book and an insightful look at the day to day realities of those that live in a society that was on a brink of important change.
I loved how the ending of this book offers fresh beginnings for each of three main characters and how they grew closer to each other and grew in confidence and courage to face the new unknowns before them. I generally do not like sequels, but I feel like I know the women in this story so well, that I would enjoy reading the next chapter in their lives. Or maybe better yet, to hear from their perspective as they look back to these days from the 60’s when each of their lives is at its end. I would love to hear the difference they saw (and lived) due to their heroic contribution.
First time novelist, Kathryn Stockett has earned the praise of many for her #1 New York Times Bestseller book. She has offered a glimpse into the past with genuine and courageous openness. The fact that she as a child was raised in Jackson, Mississippi, with the help of a maid, adds to the authenticity from which she writes, and I agree with what she sees as the point of the book: “We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.”