Book Review: The Help

I recently read the book "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. This book has been really popular lately due to the movie based on the book coming out. I do plan to see the movie but I usually always prefer the book. Although this movie looks pretty good too and I like a lot of the actors in it. Here is the movie poster:

When I first heard about this book, last year I discounted it thinking what I usually think about the "it" book of the moment that everyone is reading. That is usually a huge turnoff for me. But it almost always happens that I eventually give in and read the book that everyone is talking about and end up loving it. Man, am I stubborn!

Well this book was no different. When my co-worker said she had the book and would let me borrow it, I decided to go ahead and read it. It was actually really good. It ended up being one of those books that really makes you think. (Poor Steve I kept talking about it at home.) I really didn't anticipate the fact that the book was set during the civil rights movement and it would have a lot to do with that. This is a topic that I'm pretty passionate about so it really brought up a lot of emotions.

The book takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s and is written in 3 different perspectives, by an upper class young woman, Skeeter, and two black maids, Minny and Aibileen. It details the lives of these three women and their interactions with each other and everyone else in their community. It really goes into detail about the day to day life of a maid in Jackson at that time. The biggest thing that hit home for me was how close they were to the children they helped raise and also how close the children were to them. Aibileen is much more of a mother and caregiver to the child she is helping take care of than her own mother. But the reality of the situation was that the maids were employees and could be fired at any time. The author does a great job of detailing how delicate that connection was.

The author also did a great job discussing the racism that was present at that time. It was really interesting to see it displayed from the perspective of the maids. She often made the distinction that the white men who hated you would beat you up while the white women would make up a lie and therefore ruin your reputation and your ability to get a job and care for your family, etc which was much worse. Having not been alive at that time period, I really thought that relationship between black and whites at that time was interesting. It made me so sad to read about some of the horrible things people did to each other at that time.

But the really uplifting part about the book is that people are willing to stand up for the rights of others. Skeeter empathizes with Aibileen and the other maids, mostly because she was raised by a black maid and grew to love her. That part of the book is so heart warming. I won't give too many details because I want you to read it but its a really good story.

I really enjoyed reading this book. It was sort of slow to get into but once the plot got going I was hooked. I would highly recommend reading it. It was one of those books that really makes you think and at the end I wanted more. I will definitely try to see the movie and hope it lives up to the book!