Book Reviews

“THE HELP”

“THE HELP” is the first novel by American author Kathryn Stockett.  It took her five years to write it and then it was rejected by 45 literary agents.  It is about African American maids working in the white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s.

The novel is told from the perspective of three characters;  Aibileen, a middle aged African American maid who has spent her life raising white children; Minny, an African American maid who has often offended her employers; and Skeeter, a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating from college.

Twenty-two year old Skeeter has just returned home after graduation from Ole Miss.  She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter is married.  Skeeter would normally find comfort with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, the women come together on a project that will put them all at risk.  Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary characters whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women –mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends – view one another.  It is a moving novel filled with humor, and hope.  The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t.

This is another review of one of the books in the Red Waller Community Library.   Check it out today and continue your reading adventures.