Book Review
The Help by Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 978-0141039282
The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960’s. We are taken into a world which is hopefully dead and buried. Where black maids were seen fit and able to raise the children of white families (and a whole lot more) but were treated with suspicion and often became the fall guy for their employers. The story focuses on a short period of time and the determination of one young white woman who refuses to play along with the inequalities of her peers. She is not only fighting the prejudices of her friends but also has to cope with her mother who despite being seriously ill, is determined to make a lady and a wife out of her daughter. ‘The Help’ is a tale of stories, recounted by the maids in Jackson - some of which ‘colour’ the morals of those who believe they are better.
There are a number of maids who play pivotal parts in the story but two of them stand out in helping the cause of the lone white woman, Miss Skeeter. Aibileen is caring for her seventeenth child, Mae Mobley and daily provides her little ward with the comfort and confidence she should receive from her mother. Aibileen, still grieving for her only son who was killed in tragic circumstances, is the key driver to not only encouraging her fellow maids to tell their tales but also in helping to shape the words.
And then there is Minny, Aibileen's best friend, mother of a family rising in numbers and beaten by her drunken husband. Minny often speaks before she’s thought about what it is she wants to say and this has got her into a whole load of trouble.
Miss Skeeter (so called because her father thought she looked like a mosquito when she was born, all legs and tiny body) yearns to be a writer and regularly resists her mother’s attempts to make her into a ‘lady’ eligible for marriage. She finds she has very little in common with her white counterparts and longs for the return of her maid who left under mysterious circumstances. Together these three women develop an unlikely friendship but one which is bound by a common purpose. To tell their story.
The Help is written in the patois of the setting and the main characters and at first is difficult to latch on to. However, once you do you’ll be turning the pages, eager to find out who has done what to whom. And the race to get the book completed in time for the publisher is supplanted by the real fears all the contributors experience when the book hits town.
About the Author
Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and Creative Writing, she moved to New York City where she worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. The Help is her first novel.
Readability Rating: 10
Recommendation: 10
