The #1 New York Times bestselling novel and basis for the Academy Award-winning film—a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don’t—nominated as one of America’s best-loved novels by PBS’s The Great American Read.
Aibileen is a black maid in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, who’s always taken orders quietly, but lately she’s unable to hold her bitterness back. Her friend Minny has never held her tongue but now must somehow keep secrets about her employer that leave her speechless. White socialite Skeeter just graduated college. She’s full of ambition, but without a husband, she’s considered a failure.
Together, these seemingly different women join together to write a tell-all book about work as a black maid in the South, that could forever alter their destinies and the life of a small town...
I read "The Help" while on vacation but it's definitely not a vacation kind of book. I was so absorbed and interested in it that I couldn't put it down, which is the opposite of what you're supposed to do when you're on spring break in Florida.
Kathryn Stockett does an incredible job of representing these women and she succeeded in a very difficult task. I cared for all the main characters in different ways and saw a lot of myself in each of them. It is such a relatable book and I was surprised that Kathryn Stockett was more or less the main character when she younger. It seems like the issues they cover are so far removed from our society now, but this novel about Southern black life in the Civil Rights era, maids, the women who employed them and a young white women who desperately needed things to change will have you nodding your head yes at every page turn.
While the thickness of the novel may throw you off when you first see it, I powered through it in two days in small chunks. You will become so involved with the characters and the story, you won't notice it's over. You'll keep begging for more. It is a story that needs to be read and heard.
