Book Review: The Help

 I just finished reading The Help by Kathryn Stockett last night.  Overall it’s well written, easy to read, and kept me interested.  It did not revolutionize any ideas I had about race relations in 1960’s South or women’s roles in society at the time, but it was a nice story about some interesting women.  Apparently, Stockett’s inspiration for the book was the relationship she had with her housekeeper growing up in Jackson, MS and her desire to become a writer in New York.  The book is written from the narratives of a young white society woman and two black housekeepers.  

Skeeter is a white 24 year old recent college grad living with her parents, scheming to be a writer, and the only non-married woman among her friends.  Abileen is an older black woman with no living family working for Skeeter’s childhood friend Elizabeth Leefolt.  Minny is Abileen’s best friend and former housekeeper to the town’s most popular and feared League President Hilly Holbrook who has made it impossible for Minny to get a job after a mysterious incident.  The three women, through series of events, join forces to write a book illuminating what it is like to be a black housekeeper in Jackson, MS.  I found it ironic that in a story about black women given voices (by two white women, Skeeter and Ms. Stein the publisher in NY) in a society where they were otherwise invisible that these voices were fabricated by a white woman, Stockett.  This is not to say that I found the rendition of Aibileen’s and Minny’s voices inauthentic, but an odd choice given the subject of the book and the great lengths the author has Skeeter go to assure the black maids that she is writing their stories in their voice.  On this same note I’m wondering where the perspective of the “enemy” is; the peer pressured, life ruining, married, stay-at-home white woman.  The only depth given to these women is the length they will go to seek revenge on those who have crossed them.  While definitely a reality, I found it to be an oversimplified take and not very dynamic view of the complexities of race and sex in the 1960’s. The storyline of black women=good and white women=bad (with the few saved exceptions) has been played out. This oversight does not make this book a failure, but puts in perspective where the book is coming from and why it may not have the depth or rawness of other novels covering racial divide in the South.  Whether or not this was Stockett’s intention, I do not know.   While the book is not revealing much about the complexities race relations or gender identity, Stockett is a gifted storyteller who engaged me as a reader.  I would definitely recommend this book to anyone looking for  a good story.