The Help

Hi everyone! Today I am excited to be reviewing a book that I recently finished called "The Help" which was written by Katheryn Stockett. (I am sure you have probably heard of it: it's a national bestseller and it has been made into a movie which is set to come out on August 10th.) I want to just say this before I review the book. The Help has been subject to some controversy from many different sources, the greatest of which is that Katheryn Stockett was the "wrong author" for this story. There has been strong criticism that this book is just another "white story" and that this is proof that contemporary African American writers are continually denied the opportunity to write about the Civil Rights Movement and other troubled times. I honestly don't really know how I feel about that argument. I am certainly not a naive person; I know discrimination does exist and is a strong part of society even today, and I believe that there could be a better, more accurate story out there. At the same time, I don't think this is Katheryn Stockett's fault, and I am only here to review the book she wrote. The book itself, at least for my purposes, is what is important, not the controversy surrounding it.

The Characters: Skeeter Phelan: recent graduate of college/ wants to be a journalist/ convinces the maids to give information about their experiences as "the help"
Minny Jackson: maid of Celia/ one of the best cooks in Jackson/ is known for having a smart mouth
Aibileen Clark: maid of Elizabeth/ best friend of Minny/ lost her son in an accident at his work
Hilly Holbrook: one of Skeeter's friends/ has a petition to force the black maids to have their own bathroom outside the house/ tries to prevent Minny from getting a job in Jackson

The Plot: In Jackson, Mississippi there are two distinct groups, blacks and whites, separated by the harsh and awful Jim Crow laws. Oppressed and discriminated against, many black women are forced to take jobs as simple housekeepers to rich white families. Aibileen Clark and Minny Jackson are two of these women. Two very different ladies, Aibileen and Minny have survived dozens of homes and raised dozens of white children. While not content with their lives, Aibileen and Minny have almost grown to accept their fate. But when Hilly Holbrook, one of the most powerful women in Jackson, tries to create a petition that would force "the help" to use a bathroom outside of the house, Aibileen finds that her anger was not so far beneath the surface after all. So when Skeeter Phelan, a young college graduate, approaches Aibileen and asks her help in writing a story about the black housekeepers, Aibileen's "no" quickly turns into a "yes". What transpires is a powerful story about the divisions that are put up between the races and a group of women dedicated to show the injustices that are in our world.

What I liked: I finished this book in a day. Admittedly, some parts are a little blurry because I read the book so fast. I just had to finish. I can't remember the last time I got so hooked into a book. For me, The Help showed us a world where racism was very much alive and out in the open, a world where the subtle nastiness towards African Americans wasn't so subtle, a world where the KKK ran rampant, and a world where blacks were afraid to speak out in fear of the repercussions. This is now one of my favorite books. This story had everything I liked to see in a story: the most important of which was strong, complex female characters. You have Aibileen who desperately loves the white children she takes care of because they fill the gaping whole that was left by her son's death. You have Minny who talks back to her white bosses, who is the picture of confidence and sass, yet is abused by her alcoholic husband at home. And you have Skeeter who is completely ostracized by her community and has to deal with her mother dying of cancer. These people, these women were real, and had real problems and that is why I loved them. The Help pulled in so many complex issues and the complex relationships between blacks and whites. What I remember in particular is Aibileen thinking about how odd it is that they, as the black maids, essentially raise the white children, but then as the white children grow up, they become just as racist as their parents. This painful experience for the maids is exemplified by Aibileen leaving her job before the kids got too old because she couldn't bear to see them turn out like their parents. I loved all of the characters in the book, even the devilish Hilly because she symbolized perfectly all that was wrong with Jackson. Each person contributed a small piece to how friendship between blacks and whites was thwarted and discouraged at every turn, and how despite that, friendships prevail. My favorite dynamic was the one between Minny and Celia. Celia, who is Minny's boss through most of the novel, wasn't a particularly classy individual, and was regarded by the women of Jackson as "white trash" but she was a fighter, who for a time had lost her way. Minny helped her find her way back. These women and their situations were real in the eyes of the reader because we know that these issues still exist. We felt the pain of these maids as they pushed against every barrier that was put in their path. Stockett created characters which reflect all of the good and bad inside of the United States and all of the issues we still struggle with today. She made a book that was worth remembering, and worth rereading. Sometimes books become classics because they have grand symbols, or complex language, but some books, like The Help, become classics because they have a story that is worth telling, and characters that are important enough to do it.

What I didn't like: Nothing

Overall: 10 out of 10. I just hope that the movie can do this book justice.