The Help

The book club selection for the month of June is "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett. Although Toni and I were both disappointed that this book isn't yet out in paperback, we were looking forward to reading it because of the many good things we've heard about the book.

I'll admit, because I heard so many good things about the book, I was setting myself up for disappointment. With the New York Times Bestseller list littered with not-so-great books, I am always wondering whether I will actually like a book that so many others do.

Believe me when I say that "The Help" did not disappoint. I loved it!

The book is set in Mississippi in the early 1960's and is told from the perspectives of three characters:
- Aibeliene, a black woman in her 50s who has worked as a maid since she was a teen. After the death of her only son several years earlier, she relishes the relationship she builds with her employer's young children, raising them as her own.
- Minny, a black woman in her 30s with an abusive husband and a houseful of children at home. She's been a maid for much of her life as well, but her attitude and propensity to speak her mind have made it difficult for her to keep a job.
- Skeeter, a white woman in her early 20s who has just graduated college. While all of her childhood girlfriends are getting married, having children, and chairing social league events and fundraisers, Skeeter has ambitions to become a writer, a fact that is not looked highly upon by anyone in her life.

This book fully engaged me from page 1. Stockett uses a southern dialect for the maids that is extremely authentic, without taking away from the novel. She integrates the history of the time period very well. Jackson, Mississippi was probably one of the most volatile places in America in the 1960's, and Stockett successfully pulls the reader into that feeling of fear and uncertainty. She really makes us understand the extreme racial hatred that still existed there.

I think was Stockett does best is to build her characters. The reader can't help but fall in love with Aibilene, Minny, and Skeeter. We can't help but laugh out loud at Minny's comments, or feel Aibilene's loneliness as she sits in her apartment alone each night, thinking about her son's death. And we can't help but feel for Skeeter when her loved ones aren't supportive of her ambitions. The characters feel extremely real, and Stockett jumps back and forth between their perspectives flawlessly.

Stockett is also extremely skillful in her building of the story. While I wouldn't say there is one "climax" of the book, she weaves together the plot lines extremely well, building tension in various points in the book to make us want to keep reading.

This book is one of the few I've read recently that I really feel will withstand the test of time. It makes me feel good to know that so many people are reading it, because it is a smart and worthwhile read. I can't wait to discuss it at book club!

---Emily