The Help

Stockett, Kathyrn
THE HELP
Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
(464 pp.)
$24.95
Feb. 10, 2009
ISBN: 978-0399155345
Penguin Audio
$39.95
Feb. 10, 2009
ISBN: 978-0143144182

Stockett draws on her personal experiences as a writer and a southerner in her first novel, a work of historical fiction set in her hometown, Jackson, Mississippi, during the early stages of the Civil Rights Movement.

It’s 1962 and, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan, returns to Jackson after graduating from Ole Miss with an English degree, not the “Mrs.” degree her mother would have preferred. No longer content with just playing bridge with her married high school friends, editing the league newsletter and obeying her mamma’s wishes, Skeeter decides to follow the career advice of a New York editor and lands the only open job at the local paper, dispensing household advice. Since Skeeter, like all white women in Jackson, has no experience doing housework she seeks the answers for the “Miss Myrna” column from her friend’s “colored” maid Aibileen, who has raised 17 white children. Aibileen reveals to Skeeter that her son, an aspiring writer who was killed in a work accident, wanted to write about his experiences working for whites. Skeeter, missing her own black maid and ashamed of her friends’ attitudes toward their “negra” help, decides to write such a book offering an inside look at the relationship between the black maids and white women for whom they work. Reluctantly Aibileen agrees to share her story. She gets her friend Minny, a maid whose sass makes it hard for her to keep a job, to help. The Help, told in the three women’s voices, is a page turner. Readers will care about each of the women and the risks they are taking to share their stories. Stockett writes with an authentic feel that made this white reader feel guilty about the rampant racism exhibited by the white, middle class and the Jim Crow Laws of Mississippi. Though Aibileen is not allowed to use the household toilet she is trusted to care and nurture the children. Stockett has crafted a wonderful first novel that will make readers at times laugh, cry and hope for more. Recommended.