Sunday, January 2, 2011

The Help by Kathryn Stockett (2009)


I've been wanting to read this book for a long time after hearing rave reviews from many of the readers I respect the most (mainly my mom) and I finally got the chance while staying in Texas over the holidays and after a visit to my mom's library.


This book, the story of black maids and the white women they work for in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's, is a wonderful, funny, sad story and it had me from the first page. The words of Aibileen and Minny, the two black women, and Skeeter, the young white woman, are so authentic and real, as a reader you immediately have sympathy for them and their friends and family. When they set out to undertake writing a book of interviews of maids in their town, I was excited and scared right along with them.


This is a story that shows us what is was like for both black and white women in those days in the South, but it also explores friendship, loyalty, and family. It is wonderfully written and kept me turning the page, desperate to find out what happened at the end. I finished it today on the roof top patio of a hotel in San Antonio TX, sitting in the sun and trying not to cry, so happy to have finally had a chance to read this wonderful first novel and completely satisfied by the ending. Thank you, Ms. Stockett.

2 comments:

(Diane) Bibliophile By the Sea said...

I loved this one too when I read it. i can't wait for the movie this summer.

Anonymous said...

I totally agree, this is a wonderful read!