Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help

Author: Kathryn Stockett

Publication Date: February 10, 2009

Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam

Genre: Historical Fiction

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Synopsis:

Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step. Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.

Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.

Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.

Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.

In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women - mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends - view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't.

My Thoughts: I read this book for a book group, I'm glad I did since this isn't the type of book I would normally pick up and read.

The Help, overall, is a good read. It's sad, funny, and teaches a bit about racial discrimination. Would I recommend this book? Yes. While not exactly my type of book, I do feel that it is a must read. It's enjoyable to read, I did find it a bit hard to get into at first, as it starts a little slow but it does quickly pick up. Once I got going I couldn't put the book down, I just had to know what would happen once the book was published. The three different story lines, are a bit frustrating at the beginning, you would start to get into one characters mind set, only for it to change and you would have to get into someone else's. The three narrators are honest, each having it's own humour, and I came to love each one, especially Minny. So go out, get yourself a copy, read it, and enjoy. Just remember, don't eat Minny's special chocolate pie!