The Help

After hearing several favorable reviews of The Help, I borrowed it from the library and read it over the weekend. In case you are like me and have been in a box (called my house or your house, respectively) for the last few months, The Help is Kathryn Stockett's first novel, a story set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the 1960s. Three characters take turns telling their stories: Aibileen, Minny, and Miss Skeeter. Aibileen and Minny are African-American maids who work hard for their white mistresses and help raise their children. Miss Skeeter returns home from college dreaming to become a writer and eventually lands on an idea to write about what it would feel like to be a maid. Only, she needs maids to honestly tell her, a white girl, these private thoughts when they could lose everything.

The novel was extremely well-written, except that the maids talked with an accent and the white ladies didn't. (It's the South; they all have accents!) What propelled it to the bestseller lists is most likely the strong historical setting and the deep emotion portrayed. Stockett accurately describes what it's like to be in love, to raise children, to despise your boss -- generally, to be human.

It's not clean enough to recommend to my church book club, but I do think that it's a good read, especially for people interested in the South. Just stay away from that pie. (PG-13, recommended)