The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Reader Rating:

Another book that has been on my list to read and finally got around to it. It's been a bestseller for over a year and once you start reading it, you see why. When I first read what this book was about, it didn't really appeal to me. The size also didn't help it's case. Right now feel more like reading shorter books and this one was over 500 pages and I didn't want to take weeks reading one book. Since this book was so good, I finished it in 2 days. (It also helped that I didn't have to work this weekend and spent most of Saturday reading.)

This book takes place in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960's and the middle of the civil rights movement. It follows three characters, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny. Skeeter is a single white woman in her early 20's who just graduated from Ole Miss and finds out that the maid that she loved and raised her, no longer works for her family and cannot be found. Aibileen and Minny are best friends and are the black maids of Skeeter's friends Elizabeth and Hilly. During a bridge party at Elizabeth's house, Skeeter is offended by Hilly's remarks about having a separate bathroom for the black help to prevent black deceases from spreading to white people. Skeeter knows that Aibileen overheard the conversation and questions her if she ever wanted to change things. Skeeter wants to be a writer and after getting advice from an editor in New York, she takes a bottom rank job at the local newspaper writing a column answering housekeeping questions. Since she doesn't know anything about cleaning, she asks Aibileen for the answers and they soon grow close. Minny is a sass mouthed maid who is always getting fired for back talking and soon makes an enemy of Hilly who is the tyrant of Jackson. For a black maid, crossing a rich white woman is the worst thing you could do. They will spread rumors so that you'll never find another job and possibly leave you evicted from your home. As the book progresses, Skeeter decides to write a book about being a black maid serving in white households, telling their stories, good and bad. She soon finds out that getting the help to talk, is going to be harder than she ever thought.