The Help

Kathryn Stockett's The Help is well worth reading though I hesitate to worship it like some reviewers have. The tale is thought-provoking, entertaining and it encourages deeper contemplation of the complex racial relationships of Southern women that form a painful and very real chapter of our history. And really, what more do you want from a book than to be entertained and provoked?

The Help follows a wealthy Southern white woman, Skeeter, as she pursues her unusual dream of becoming a journalist. She decides to catch the attention of NYC publishers by writing about the help, the black women who spend their lives attending to the needs of white women. Stockett does an excellent job of portraying both the intense racism of the era and the genuine bonds between white women and their black help. Without being overly preachy, she manages to capture the affection black help had for the kids they nannied and occasionally, for the women they worked for.

The story follows Skeeter as she strives to give black women a voice through her writing (a facet of the story that bothers me a bit, as if black women need a white helper to have a meaningful voice). Skeeter struggles to find women to speak until the Civil Rights Movement heats up and suddenly, black woman want to be heard. And the stories they tell are honest, horrifying, funny and sad. It's incredibly difficult to write a book like this without being callous to one side or the other but Stockett manages to humanize everyone without softening the ugliness, pain or degradation of oppression. It's excellent.

It's also an easy read, great for a lazy rainy afternoon or a few days at the beach.