The Help

Stockett, K. (2009). The Help.  New York:    Putnam.

I have to admit, I'm a very bad reader sometimes. Sometimes I watch a movie then read a book, and sometimes I take a long time to read a book. Both of these confessions are true with The Help. I first watched the movie, which I love, then I bought the book on my e-reader, two years ago.  I was never able to read past the first 100 pages or so. I was determined to finally actually read the novel. And since I'm at a training without TV or real responsibilities, I did. And I'm so glad I did. 

The Help follows the stories of three women from Jackson, Mississippi as they write a nonfiction piece on African-American servants during the Civil Rights movement. Each of the three women--Skeeter, Abileen, and Minny--take turns narrating the events that surround them. Writing a novel from a character's perspective is very difficult , but writing from three perspectives with two being of a different ethnicity is extremely difficult. And Stockett is able to do so flawlessly. She is truly able to make the characters come to life through their voices with the use of dialect and characterization. 

I love the relationships between the characters. Stockett expands the relationship between Minny and Celia much more than is portrayed in the movie. The scenes involving those two left me in tears, both from laughter and sobs. Skeeter has got to be my favorite character. Stockett creates empathy for Skeeter by allowing her to become exiled by everyone as the plot develops. Her relationships deteriorate as the novel unfolds. One relationship that I saw as lacking, however, was the relationship between Skeeter and her mother. The screenwriters actually did a better job in this area. When it seems as if Skeeter loses everyone, I wanted her to still have her mother. 

The Help is a very good novel for historical fiction. Stockett includes details from actual events during the 1960's, such as Dr. Martin Luther King and Medgar Evans. The characters were able to react to the events of the time period. 

The storyline of The Help is one that is close to Stockett herself. At the end of the novel, she includes a section devoted  to her own family's maid. This was touching to read and allowed me to see and feel even more for the characters in her novel.

I really enjoyed The Help.  While it is not the next Great American Novel, it is a very nice summer read that allows the reader to reflect on issues of race, relationships, gender, and class.