The Help by Kathryn Stockett

WOW! WOW! WOW! Loved this book! You have to be living in a cave if you haven't heard of this book. Thanks to a recent big motion picture release based on the novel-it's everywhere. I first heard of this book after it was recommended to me by a fellow book clubber. I put it on my wish list and then the movie came out and everyone was talking about it. I had procrastinated long enough-it was time to read "The Help".

Let me say I haven't been this excited after reading a book since "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins. I know-I love a lot of books but not all of them make me want to call someone up and make them listen to me wax poetic about a novel!

"The Help" is Stockett's first novel. Really? Wow-what next? Excellent writing-great plot and pace. I really don't have any complaints about this book except that the dialect was distracting in the beginning. The more absorbed you become in the story though, the less you notice. Also there were two minor story lines that I felt really just kind of distracted you from the main plot. Miss Celia, an alcoholic loner who married a local and is physically unable to have kids and Stuart Wentworth, Miss Skeeter's one time love. He is a governor's son and disappears and reappears quite often throughout the book. Sometimes I tolerate the loose end story lines if everything is tied up nice and neat in the end. Not really the case here, but I think Stockett could take those two fading story lines and write two more novels- they really had that much promise.

"The Help" is set in the rural south of the 1960's. A tumultuous time in history to say the least. Jackson, Mississippi- one of the last holds of racial segregation, is the home of maids Abileen, Minny and the white women they work for. Enter in Miss Skeeter, a young college grad hoping to become a great writer. A crazy idea is concocted to write a story of the maids in town and their experiences working for the white families; dictated by the maids to Miss Skeeter.

The books covers a time in our history where MLK Jr. and Kennedy were trying to lead a country in the fight against racial discrimination and women everywhere were about to march for equality. Stockett really creates a historically accurate novel that makes you genuinely feel you're sitting on a porch in Mississippi in "100 degree heat with 99 percent humidity".

The heart of this book though is the coming together of women despite their differences; the color of their skin, the amount of money in their bank account and their social status in the community. The women who are so ordinary and yet create a heroic effort to erase the lines of racism and equality.

When Kathryn Stockett was asked what this book is about, she stated the point of the book (which is also a line in the novel) is this : "We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought." Well said. The question that arises from this book- "Are we born to be racist or is it learned?" made me think of a recent sight I witnessed. After reading this book I was at work (daycare) watching over  sleeping little two and three year old kids. They cuddle unknowingly close to each other. Limbs tangled, shoes and socks piled together. Little blond heads against little brown heads.In the time that this book took place; this would have been forbidden. I had to smile at those sleeping little kids. Stockett wrote a joyful, painful book that is meant to make you a little uncomfortable and have you cheering out loud.


Recommend: Yes! Read this book. And if you enjoy it- take the time to read "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker.
But: None!!
Bonus: A movie based on the novel.