Book Report: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

So, if you have read anything since Freshman literature in college, everyone is trying to get you to read this book. It is ALL THE TALK.

The story takes place in Jackson, Mississippi from the years 1961-1964. It centers around the town's women and their "help" or the black women that work for too little money as their maids. The political/ social times are changing, but are presented only peripherally in the book, which leaves the reader with the impression that Jackson, Mississippi is and enclave within a country.

The story is told from the point of view of three women: two black maids, Abilene and Minny, and one young white woman who desperately wants to be writer. The young white woman, Skeeter, is given some advice from an editor in New York that she should submit some work on a controversial topic. Thereby gaining attention and maybe changing society in some way.

Though the women she will begin to write about are her closest childhood friends, Skeeter seizes on the opportunity to secretly interview their maids and find out how The Help is treated. Much secrecy ensues and difficult lives are revealed. Pillars of the community are found to treat their maids in a less than human fashion. Jackson, Mississippi finds itself exposed.

I thought that this book was incredibly readable, and I read it almost as fast as I read One Fifth Avenue. My college roommate pointed out that Kathryn Stockett had done a a great job of writing women with poor grammar (or maybe grammar colloquial to that time and station) as both intelligent and wise. This is abundantly correct. Kathryn Stockett also wrote about Southern heat in such a way that made you feel it. I felt sticky with sweat most of the book.

Overall though, I would describe it as the best book club book I have ever read. It encourages us to think broadly and be aware of all of society's cogs. The author is from Jackson and had a close relationship with her "help" as a child. She moved to New York to become a writer, so she clearly has the authority and intimate knowledge of the subject matter. I would thoroughly recommend reading it, though I feel The Help suffered in my estimation so soon after reading Marilynne Robinson's Home.