BOOK REVIEW: The Help

So little has been written about the people in the South during the early 1960’s, at least not of the people who did not make the headlines. Kathryn Stockett has done so in THE HELP.  THE HELP has been on most best seller lists for almost a year, and has been very popular locally. To me, it portrayed a completely foreign lifestyle.

The story centers on three women who live in Mississippi in 1962. Two of the women are black maids working for white, fairly affluent, households. Their job consists mainly of taking care of the children, cooking, and general housekeeping. The third is a young white woman who is expected to marry and follow in the footsteps of her family and friends.

Aibileen is taking care of her seventeenth baby. Her other jobs were finished when the children became of school age and no longer had a need for a nanny. She is no longer as content in her job. Her own son has died while the white boss looked the other way. She is devoted to her new charge but getting impatient with the parents who ignore the child.

Aibileen’s best friend is Minny. Where Aibileen is regal and wise, Minny is short, fat, and has a tendency to be sassy with her employers. As a result the white women have banded against her and she has a hard time finding jobs. She finally finds a position with a newcomer to the area, a woman on the outside of the close knit society and who also has secrets.

Skeeter is part of the established social set and has just received a degree in journalism from Ole Miss. She is trying to fit in with her married friends who, along with her parents, only want her to marry and fit in. Skeeter, though, has become curious about how the black help feel about their employers.

These three women seem, on the surface, to be very different from one another, but when they band together to help Skeeter write a book on the conditions of black maids in Mississippi, they put themselves in real danger. Not only is there the big chance that they will lose their jobs and therefore their family’s only source of income, but blacks are being killed for standing up for their rights.

The individual stories of these three women make for fascinating reading and their stories were heartbreaking at times. Skeeter started her mission very innocent of what the consequences would be. Minny and Aibileen were too aware of what could happen.

This is a book that is hard to put down. I felt that the author knew her subject and she has written a timeless story. She has done a good job of mixing historical events of the time with her fictional characters. Those of us who did not live through this period in this location, as portrayed in the book, need to be reminded how the 60’s changed all of our lives.