Book review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I haven't done a "book report" since 4th or 5th grade. And I haven't written about a book since my college days, but one has to start again some time, right? ;) However, my book report will be unconventional in nature in that it's more about what I thought about the book as opposed to a summary of the book itself.

I recently joined a book club. OK, by "recently" I really mean four months ago. We just chose book number five: The Bonesetter's Daughter by Amy Tan. I searched through Borders book store in a variety of sections, but eventually had to go to the information desk to ask where I might find her novels. They were in literature. Interesting. I also found it interesting that the first book we read in book club, The Help by Kathryn Stockett was also in literature.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009)

I started reading the book online in a "preview" and was immediately hooked. I went to my library and asked about the book and was informed I would be number 333 on the list to receive it, should I want to add my name to the waiting list. Wow! No thanks. We ordered it online for $10.

I realized only a few years ago that I thoroughly enjoy historical fiction. I discovered it by accident, but I won't go into that now. The Help is set in Mississippi in the early 1960's when discrimination and segregation was in its height; "coloreds" had to use different bathrooms, different drinking fountains, different grocery stores, different libraries; and women (maids) had to dress in polyester maid uniforms. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his first speech within the storyline.

I'd like to think that one of the main characters, Skeeter, a 22 year old college-educated white woman, would have been me... had I lived in Mississippi in the early 1960's, but I think although I would have felt the same way about things, I wouldn't have been as bold about it as she was. She was born ahead of her time. Women didn't get college degrees and start careers -- they met a fine man, married, and had babies. Not Skeeter. She wanted to be a writer. And because she was close to her maid when she grew up (from a child through college), she appreciated "colored" people and what they had to offer. She was disgusted with the way others treated their maids.

I think because of her close friendship with her maid, she was more open, broad-minded and unbiased. She saw black people as people. And *that* was a rare quality to have in the early '60's. She wanted to expose the world to what life was really like for the black women. She wanted the world to see the women who cared for and raised white people's children, cooked their meals, cleaned their homes, all while being verbally and sometimes physically abused by their employers, or, at the very least, being talked about as if they aren't in the room, knowing they can do anything about it.

The Help raises questions:
How much of a person's character is shaped by the times in which they live?
Is racism inherent or taught?

The Help painted a picture of what it was like to be black in the early '60's in Mississippi. And also what it was like to be female in the early '60's. It's a definite page-turner, and you find yourself cheering for the maids and Skeeter until the very end. I laughed. I cried. I didn't want the book to end. And that's what a great book is all about...

Have you read The Help? Tell me what you thought.