Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett (May contain spoilers!)

I had to refresh my memory on this one yet I finished this book last spring. It was a book written about the maids in the south in the early 1960's. It takes place in Jackson, Mississippi and the three main characters are; Aibileen Clark an older maid who's been raising white children, her friend Minny Jackson who has such a bad reputation and money problems gets hired by an eccentric women outcast of the town, and the other is Eugenie "Skeeter" Phelan a college graduate who moves back to town. Their stories are told individually then weaved together throughout the book.

Skeeter could possibly stir things up in Jackson by interviewing the maids in order to publish an article about their treatment to land a job in New York. She had to do it secret to avoid being seen with the African-American maids in the still segregated South. Despite the maids working with the families for many years the relationships between the maids and their families were impersonal. It was a different world and stereotypical for the Southern White Women, playing afternoon bridge, and Junior League membership. They would have typically one maid in the household doing everything around their houses including looking after their children. The children grew fond of the maids, especially Skeeter who wandered why her maid disappeared.

It's a great read and page turner exploring all the characters that I sympathized with except for the head of the Junior League who was still set in the old ways and resistant for change. In the point of view of the African American maids, spoken in their dialect throughout the book, the reader can see the lifestyle they lead and how they live. They were religious and involved in their church which kept their spirits up. The relationship between Minny and her employer symbolized 2 outsiders coming together. Her employer was somewhat reclusive, and was never accepted into the white women's clubs, and Minny could not get employment in most households, so they had eachother. Skeeter was a woman coming of age at the time right before the ever changing '60's by being friendly with the Help which was controversial at the time. She risked her friends and social club involvement to talk to those women.  This was a well crafted book for someone like me who never knew what went on in the Southern households or about the servants and their lives. I recommend that book to anyone who's into Southern history. All three of the main characters are good people working hard to make a difference in the human condition and treatment.