THE HELP by Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett’s debut novel THE HELP is one that will surely find a receptive audience. A native of Jackson, Mississippi, Stockett writes with the eye of a southerner and the soul of a southerner. Her voice rings true in her story of one white female writer and two black maids trying to tell how it really was in 1960’s Mississippi.
The story is told from the perspective of the three women and they are both similar and dissimilar. Aibileen is a maid and nanny to the Leefolt family. Her primary responsibility is to take care of their young daughter Mae Mobley. Aibileen has been caring for the young children of white families for many years, and she loves them with all of her heart.
In order to keep her job she must put up with being treated like a second class citizen or even lower. She is a non-person to the white ladies who come to the Leefolt house for Bridge and club meetings. Still Aibileen needs her job and puts up with the insults that come her way.
Skeeter Phelan is a college graduate living at home with her parents. She has no boyfriend and no prospects. Her one stab at employment has resulted in her being an advice columnist for the local paper. In the past her best friend was the Phelan’s maid Constantine but she moved away before Skeeter graduated from college.
Skeeter comes up with the idea of writing a book about the lives of maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960’s. It is a dangerous idea but she eventually enlists Aibileen and her best friend Minny to tell her their stories.
Minny is a maid who can not listen to all the verbal abuse and not say something. This results in her losing job after job. Finally she gets hired by a woman named Celia, who is as much of an outsider to the “women” of Jackson as Minny is. Celia has none of the social graces these women require. All she has is a rich husband.
Stockett examines all three of these women and their adversaries with an unflinching eye. She manages to explore the good and the bad of all the people, so it is not just a hatchet job on the whites and a glorification of the blacks. There is a balance to her writing.
There is an incident in the book that is so distasteful that it made finishing the story difficult. Maybe it was necessary for Stockett’s plot to reach the desired conclusion, but I wish it hadn’t been. To that point I had thought the book almost perfect.
There is a lot of history in THE HELP, so you learn as you read. Stockett is a solid storyteller; one who can create characters who live and breathe on the pages of her story. THE HELP is an amazing first novel and one that will be read and discussed all across the country.
If you want a readable, believable portrait of the South during the 60’s you should read THE HELP. It will open your eyes and touch your heart.
THE HELP is published by G P Putnam’s Sons. It contains 451 pages and sells for $24.95.