Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Many of you know that I am a work-from-home, stay-at-home mother of toddlers. As such, it isn’t often that I’m able to read a book quickly, but rather in short twenty-minutes-here, an-hour-there bursts. However, for The Help by Kathryn Stockett, the Fates aligned perfectly. My kids were happy to play with Legos, and I devoured every page of it in just over twenty-four hours.

From the first chapter (told from Aibileen’s point of view), I was hooked. As the story progressed to Minny and Skeeter’s points of view, I was amazed at the fine lines Stockett drew between characters, making each one memorable in her own way.

When Skeeter Phelan returns to Jackson, Mississippi after college graduation, she is determined to be a serious writer. Following a publisher’s advice to write about what bothers her, Skeeter decides to write an anonymous tell-all of what its like for the African-American maids to work for white families in Jackson. Enlisting the help of kindhearted Aibileen and spirited Minny, among others, Skeeter begins to tell a tale that will change the course of several lives in Jackson.

The Help candidly provides the reader with insight into the things maids wish they could say to their sometimes cruel, sometimes clueless “white lady” bosses. Furthermore, the risk these women take by telling their stories is inspirational. I’d bet many of us haven’t risked our homes, livelihoods, families, and lives to tell the truth of what we’ve faced, the true horror of a way of life society has deemed “normal.” The Help reminded me that there are much bigger, pressing issues that many of my fellow humans face every day that I will never know – that, in comparison, many of my problems pale.

The characters are bold in unique ways, and the challenges they face are tremendous. Even if I couldn’t relate to their situations, I could relate to their emotions, which is just one of many factors that drew me so wholly into this book.

I wish I could give The Help more than five stars. I haven’t loved a book this much in a very long time.