Kathryn Stockett has written a WONDERFUL book about the relationship between Black maids and their White employers in 1960's Mississippi. In a time when Whites thought you got diseases from using the same toilet as Blacks,(huh??) when "the help" was told they were members of the family, but were treated like garbage, Skeeter, a white writer decides to write a tell all about how it really was to live in the charged atmosphere of Jackson, Mississippi. Hilly is the Queen Bee of Jackson, and rules with an iron fist. She is small minded and evil.
Skeeter was Hilly's best friend, but begins seeing her for what she really is, as she contacts maids in secret to get to get their stories. Minny and Aibileen have been domestics since their teenage years, cleaning, doing childcare, elder care, and learning the secrets of the folks they serve. They help recruit the maids, who are fearful, but ready to shed some light on a dark secret.
It is a dangerous time and a dangerous place to be, and some people did not think twice about burning a house, bombing a church or maiming/ killing a Black person. A story of selfishness,
gossip, fear, triumph and change, it is a splendid piece of writing.
This debut novel was touching, and shocking, with heartbreaking, heart stopping incidents, that captured the time perfectly. It was pure heart!
I got this book from the library. My tax dollars at work!
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ReplyDeleteThis on my to be read list. Great review.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this review. I heard part of The Help on Radio 4's Women's Hour a couple of months ago and bought a copy as soon as I could. I'm really looking forward to reading it and more so much more having read your review.
ReplyDeleteGlad you are up and about again. Thanks for this review, sounds just like my kind of book. I'm awat to add it to my amazon wish list.
ReplyDeleteI read and reviewed this book several months ago, and I loved it too. I really enjoyed reading your review.
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