Book report: The Help

by Kathryn Stockett, 2009

Summary: Three different women narrate a story about the trials of the black women who essentially run white households in 1960s Mississippi. Aibileen secretly helps to instill a sense of self-worth in the white children she raises, but mourns for her own son, who died in a tragic accident as a young adult. Minny's fiery temper and sharp tongue have made her an unemployable outcast among the white families in need of household help in Jackson, until she pairs up with a bubbly employer who is herself an outcast in the same crowd. And Skeeter, the lone white narrator, is a recent college graduate with unfortunate hair and a knack for journalism. In a quest to prove herself to a publishing powerhouse in New York, she embarks on a project to help black housekeepers of Jackson to commit their stories to paper.

Opinion: I have to admit, my opinion of this book was recently clouded by a friend who said she thought the writing was pretentious that none of the stories rang true. And it got me thinking, how much could a relatively young white woman (I'm talking about the author) possibly know about the bowels of the home help industry for a black woman in the 1960s? I definitely couldn't put the book down, once I picked it up, so in that sense, I would recommend it. But I guess I'd advise you to take it with a grain of salt. Skeeter's story seemed to take up the bulk of the pages, and frankly, I found her lacking in many things, including integrity. No, she's not nearly as bigoted and idiotic as some of her chums, but that's not saying much.

That Skeeter winds up being the only character with a big, tangible payoff at the end seems, in hindsight, totally unfair. I did like Aibileen and Minny, though, and if anyone wanted to write a follow-up novel dedicated entirely to the relationship between Minny and her birdbrained charge, I wouldn't complain. Not one bit.