Girl Crush

Book Review of “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett.

I love it when someone recommends a book to read. It happens anywhere. A total stranger sizes you up in about 5 minutes…You could be standing around at a bookstore looking at the biography section. Someone will walk up and toss a great memoir at you. Or you could be watching a favorite show on HBO such as “In Treatment” and the main character is telling someone about a great book. I read “The Memory of Running” last year because it was talked about on that show. It was my favorite book last year….

I work at a donut shop. Amy Joy Donut. It is not a hipster joint, it’s a coffee and donut shop in Shaker Hts, Ohio. On Cleveland’s east side. An integrated, middleclass neighborhood. I love it. Gets me out of the bubble I reside in…

A few weeks ago a woman came into the shop, bought a cup of coffee and sat down. She had some time to kill. Not a regular customer. I was chatting with a few of the regulars that were in. I had a book with me and we were dishing about it. I wish I could remember what it was…Anyways the woman joined in our conversation. She asked me if I had read “The Help” by Kathryn Stockett. I hadn’t, but I put the title in my phone. I stopped at the library and reserved it. It is still in hardback and on the bestseller list…

I was fortunate to get it last week. I finished it in a few days. I don’t want to say that I couldn’t put it down, but it is a quick read. The story shifts first person every few chapters. Kathryn Stockett does a great job of taking you back to three women’s lives in Jackson, Mississippi in the early 1960’s.

“The Help” is about three women in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Aibileen is a black maid raising her 17th white child. Minnie is also a black maid but tends to lose her jobs because she has a sassy mouth. Miss Skeeter is a 22 year old white woman. She returns home with a college degree and finds that her beloved maid, Constantine is gone.

Many of Skeeter friends are married with children. They have the Junior League and bridge games. They all have black maids. It is Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Segregation in the south is the norm. Skeeter is not married or even engaged. In fact, she still lives with her parents. She would love to be a writer…

Skeeter gets a job at a local newspaper writing the Miss Myrna column. It is a household hints type of column. Since Skeeter has no talent in the domestic area, she asks her friend Elizabeth’s black maid, Aibileen for some hints. A writing project begins…

Kathryn Stockett paints a picture of how difficult this might have been back then. The lines were clearly defined. Skeeter is not sure she can follow these rules. She feels differently than many of the women in this town. And she is struggling to find her voice in all of it. She and Aibileen and Minnie come together to write a book about being a black maid and working for white families in the segregated south. It is a dangerous project that could put them and their families in great danger. But all are dedicated to this for their own reasons...

When I read a book, I am always searching for some character to empathize with. The main characters in this book are women. Different types of women. Different races. Different social classes. But all women. I have often thought that women should be able to relate to one another, no matter what, on some level. I try to be faithful to that notion. But I cannot even imagine what it would be like to have lived back then. To have such tolerated division among people, here in America.

I found the women and their strength lovely. And their passion to have their voices heard, (even anonymously), amazing. Women are tough and always have been. And women as mothers and sisters and individuals are to be admired.

“The Help” is a beautiful book. It is Kathryn Stockett’s first novel. She is from Jackson, Mississippi. At the end of the book she writes, in her own words, why she wrote the novel. I read that section twice before I actually understood what she meant. I am grateful that she wrote this book. I know there will be more great books from Kathryn Stockett. The honesty she gives her characters is magnificent. I look forward to reading more from her…