Set for publication February 10, 2009 from Amy Einhorn Books (a division of Penguin)
Kathryn Stockett’s phenomenal debut novel The Help, set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962, is told from the perspectives of three very different women. Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan is fresh out of college and back at her parents’ home in Jackson, Mississippi. Her dream is to become a writer. Her mother’s dream is for her to find a well-to-do Southern boy from a good family with a healthy trust fund and get married. Bored with her friends and frustrated by the way they talk to and about their maids—the help—Skeeter dreams up an idea that could change life in Jackson for the better, but it is quite a dangerous proposition.
Aibileen Clark is a fifty-something black woman who works as a maid for Elizabeth Leefolt, one of Skeeter’s close friends. Aibileen has spent her life raising other people’s children and is still mourning her son Treelore, who died in a horrible accident three years ago. Aibileen is stoic and strong, and she knows her place, but she understands what the ladies she works for are really all about.
Only three things them ladies talk about: they kids, they clothes, and they friends. I hear the word Kennedy, I know they ain’t discussing no politic. They talking about what Miss Jackie done wore on the tee-vee.
Aibileen views Mrs. Leefolt and her friends as superficial and sadly disconnected from their children’s lives. She does her best to treat the children with kindness and to teach them, albeit secretly, that color should not matter. But she overhears the ladies’ conversations—lately, they focus on the need for separate restrooms for “coloreds”—and she knows that color still does make a difference. And it’s a very big difference.
After a social gathering at the Leefolts’ home, Skeeter stops to say hello to Aibileen and asks her if she’s really okay with the way things are, or if she wants things to change. Taken aback, Aibileen responds that things are all right, but she can’t stop thinking about Skeeter’s question. At first, she thinks it’s an impossible suggestion.
…Miss Skeeter asking don’t I want to change things, like changing Jackson, Mississippi, gone be like changing a lightbulb.
But as Aibileen reflects on the women in her life—other strong black women who work hard only to be treated like dogs—she begins to change her mind.
I think about all my friends, what they done for me. What they do for the white women they waiting on…And all of it roll on top of me. I close my eyes, say the Lord’s prayer to myself. But it don’t make me feel any better.
Law help me, but something’s gone have to be done.
As Aibileen warms up to the idea that change just might be possible, Skeeter hits on what she believes is a great way to launch her career as a writer. Reflecting on her affection for Constantine, the maid who raised her, and increasingly agitated by her friends’ insistence on supporting segregation, Skeeter decides that it’s about time someone told the other side of the story. She asks Aibileen to tell her the truth about working for white women. It takes some time, but Aibileen gets on board with the project and feels so freed by writing her own story that she sets out to recruit her friends to the project.
Aibileen and Skeeter have a difficult time finding women who are willing to talk openly about their experiences because so much is at stake. If they are found out, the black women’s jobs–and even their lives—will be in jeopardy, and Skeeter risks losing her friends and her career before it even gets off the ground. Finally, Aibileen’s friend Minny, the third narrator of The Help, agrees to participate despite her resistance and fear. Minny tells us she couldn’t pass up the opportunity because
It’s something about that word truth. I’ve been trying to tell white women the truth about working for them since I was fourteen years old.
And later:
Truth.
It feels cool, like water washing over my sticky-hot body. Cooling a heat that’s been burning me up all my life.
Not one to keep her mouth shut, Minny, who is much closer to Skeeter’s age than Aibileen’s, has been fired from more jobs than she can count. When we meet her, she is embroiled in an all-out battle with Skeeter’s close friend Hilly Holbrook, who just happens to be heading up a movement encouraging whites to build separate bathrooms in their homes for their colored help. Minny isn’t the only one who has a problem with Hilly, and the drama surrounding Hilly’s constant agitation and posturing are a key focus of the action in this novel.
Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny are an unlikely trio, but their work on the project unites them under a common cause and proves to them that women can connect with each other regardless of their color. As they collect stories from more and more women, Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny are deeply affected by what they hear. For Skeeter:
These things I know already, yet hearing them from colored mouths, it is as if I am hearing them for the first time.
Though telling her stories is often painful, Minny discovers
I like telling my stories. It feels like I’m doing something about it.
And she begins to think about the possibilities of freedom—from racial segregation and from her abusive husband—in a way she never has before.
Who knows what I could become, if Leroy would stop goddamn hitting me.
The women undertake this project with the hope that the book will be published and will instigate change in Jackson and throughout the country. Regardless of the results (which I won’t spoil here), the process of sharing their stories and the journey they take together is more than enough. Skeeter, Aibileen, and Minny come to understand that the point of the book was
For women to realize, we are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.
Along the way, we get to know the women that Aibileen, Minny, and their friends work for, and we understand these women through their maids’ eyes and from Skeeter’s perspective of them as her peers and former friends. We also see the melodrama of Skeeter’s interactions with Hilly Holbrook and her society friends, her frustrating relationship with her mother, and her forays into dating. We see Aibileen and Minny in their formal clothes at work and in their comfortable living rooms at home, where they let their hair down and support each other like women friends do.
Kathryn Stockett paints a full and vivid picture of life in a small Southern town that is just on the cusp of civil rights and great change and is caught up in all of the controversy and heat that go with it. She succeeds in giving Aibileen and Minny realistic black Southern voices that the reader can just almost hear. Stockett peoples her small town with characters that we come to know and feel we’d be able to recognize if we passed them on the street. The types are familiar—all of us know a Hilly Holbrook and a Celia Foote—but the individuals unique.
The Help is addictively, compulsively readable. I couldn’t put it down. Stockett’s debut is well-written, and it is clear that she really understands Southern life and has made great efforts to understand what life was like for black women who served white families. She presents sad stories that leave a great glimmer of hope, and though she examines our differences and our mistakes, she highlights our humanity to wonderful effect. And while this is a serious book, it also has wonderfully lighthearted moments, humorous moments, and strikingly funny insights into women and their behavior.
I loved this book and can’t recommend it highly enough. This is a wonderful first novel that hints at the promise of a very bright career. 5 out of 5.
Filed under: Book Reviews | Tagged: Book Reviews, books, civil rights, fiction, kathryn stockett, reading, the help
[...] Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett [...]
Dear All,
I am trying to find a book to recommend to a lady’s church group. Does this book have any profane language or sexual content? Thanks Carol
Language doesn’t faze me much, Carol, but I don’t recall anything offensive. There may be a few curse words, but there isn’t any sexual content. It depends on how conservative your church group is, but I think this is a wonderful book for discussion groups.
Carol,
This would be a PERFECT book for a lady’s church book club. My book club loved it. If cursing and sexual content are key to understanding the characters and circumstances why would your discussion group reject that? I do not understand how one can learn about the human condition if you have to “censor” books and only read those that are free of anything “objectionable”? By the way, this book does not have anything that I think your group would object too. I do hope they open their minds along with opening the book and enjoy!
I have been eagerly awaiting this one…even more so now!
Can’t wait to get to this!
I can’t wait to read this one. It sounds so good and I think the cover is gorgeous.
I loved this one too. It succeeds brilliantly on many levels – I can definitely see it as one of my favorites for the year and it’s only February.
This is the first I’ve heard of this one. Wow. If you recommend it this highly, then I’ll have to put it on my list.
I haven’t heard of this one either, but your review makes me want to read it NOW!
[...] The Book Lady’s Blog [...]
Kathryn Stockett’s first book The Help is a really good read. She tells many stories within the one. Her characters are complex and come alive on the page and her message is one to take to heart and live. Kathryn, I look forward to your next book.
[...] two book reviews this week, but one of them was a chunkster. I loved The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and judging by other reviews around the blogosphere, it seems that I’m [...]
[...] 5 Minutes for Books. Jennifer gave this new title such a glowing review that I can’t resist. The Book Lady also recommends this one, calling it “addictively, compulsively [...]
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[...] Recently Reviewed I’m Sorry You Feel That Way The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao Callisto Voluntary Madness The Help [...]
I really loved this book and gave it a rare 5 stars! (on Goodreads) It has been a while since I read something that I literally couldn’t put down, but this one was that kind of book for me. I laughed out loud at times but then would just as quickly grow so frustrated that I wanted to climb right into the book and smack Miss Hilly’s self righteous face!
Set in Mississippi during the 60’s, The Help explores the relationships of colored maids and the white women that employ them. I found the characters to be genuine people that I couldn’t help but pull for and, in the case of Miss Hilly, pull against. I found Minny to be so endearing that I am genuinely going to miss her now that the book is over.
For a first novel, Kathryn Stockett really hit her mark. This book was certainly worth the hardcover price-I am so thankful to The Booklady for the recommendation!
[...] was just talking about this with some of my coworkers last week! Most recently, I think The Help (my review) has excellent movie potential. The characters are colorful and well-drawn, the dialogue is pitch [...]
[...] A Dangerous Affair (Nicola)43. Lessons From San Quentin (Kristi – Books and Needlepoint)44. The Help (The Book Lady’s Blog)45. The Bishop’s Daughter46. The Bishop’s Daughter (Heather)47. Dark of Night (Randi [...]
[...] have known that Eugenia means “aristocrat,” and I can’t say that my reading of The Help suffered for not knowing [...]
it should be a movie and i forsee Wanda Sykes as Minny and even Oprah and so many wonderful people to round out the cast. the book is a treasure.
I loved this book and can’t wait till our next Book Club meeting so I can recommend it.
I hope some one gives it to Oprah she needs a good book her choices lately have been boring.
For anyone interested in reading this I would like to suggest that you try the audiobook. I’m listening to it right now and am loving every minute of it. There are four different readers and hearing the accents makes it so much more real and enjoyable. Check out your local library for the audio version. I was cataloging it for the library where I work and started listening to it and couldn’t stop. I agree with some of the other comments that it will make a great movie. Oprah as Aibilene!
Kathy,
I am a big fan of audio books and I think this books was one of the best audio reads ever. The readers chosen for this book absolutely brought this book to life.
I have to say that I just finished the audio book and loved it! It completely brings this book to life. I have a 1 year daughter of my own and couldn’t help to see her face and think of her when reading about Mae Mobley. It killed me to think a mother could be so distance from her child and made me love abileen so much more for caring so deeply for a child that is not her own! Loved this book! Please get the audio version, you will not be disappointed!!!
[...] school English teacher, a high school librarian, an author, and three other avid readers, chose The Help for our first discussion, and I couldn’t have been happier with that decision. I loved the [...]
I listened to this book on audio-loved it! But was the end really Skeeter saying “thanks” to Aibeleen? I didn’t want it to end there…
I cannot believe what an awesome read “The Help” was. I, who never allow a book from the library to be overdue let this one be as I started to read too close to the due date.
I can hardly wait for your follow-up novel. And I will certainly be voting to have “The Help” added to next year’s reading list.
Wow! A winner! Having spent my life in SC, I feel qualified to say this is THEIR and OUR story!
Another winner is A Beautiful Place to Die by Malla Nunn…1950s South Africa Murder Mystery/Story of aparthaid. Just out June 2009.
[...] 7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett [...]
I just finished the book. I could not put it down. Best book I read in years.
I began to take THE HELP seriously as I noted the interplay of characters from colliding worlds from the beginning. And the sense that I was reading an important book grew on me as I watched Abileen and Minny become the engine, Hilly try to stop the train, and Miss Skeeter teeter her way toward clearer awareness with the humility to notice where the huge gaps remained in her own mind and heart. Especially clear is the marvelous magic having shaped her into a thinking, caring adult – the love and caregiving of her own Constantine, now lost I loved this book and am recommending it to all my friends – makes me recall the strong impact of TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD..
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Do all the readers read this book without being judgmental? If so, did it make your think of your own prejudices to your fellow man , either black or white and how you treat them?
All of the women in my group were very open-minded and receptive to what Stockett was trying to do in the book, but I can’t make that guarantee about all readers, you know? It sparked a very interesting conversation about the parallels between the treatment of blacks in the book and the treatment of gays and lesbians in contemporary society and really did prompt us to re-examine the automatic assumptions we make about people from different backgrounds. This one really is a wonderful conversation starter.
Books should stimulate thought and and as stated above, a re-examination of our feelings toward assumptions and bias.
Having been born in Alabama and lived there until 1953, my parents never had “help” however, my memories are more of the black lady who was my mother’s friend and helped her so much during her battle with cancer. She was Aunt Carolina to us and we loved her dearly. There are two sides as to how southerners treated their “help” who were in most cases, also their friend.
Good conversation …
[...] in the book club made everyone else slow to recommend selections, so I chose our first three—The Help, The Gargoyle, and The Believers—and the other ladies decided it was time to read something [...]
what did i miss in the book….what was the secret that Aibileen had on Miss Hilly at the end of the book?
I like my books like my movies: all the loose ends get tied up and the bad guy gets his/her comeuppance. This book disappoints on both counts. I read to feel good, not frustrated.
Even though pieces of this story are left open (most likely for a sequel, if you ask me), I thought the ending was ultimately very satisfying. Sorry to hear it wasn’t clean-cut enough for you.
Was the ingredient in the pie what I think or did I miss something? I passed my copy on to a friend and am pondering the question of “the secret”.
It’s what you think it was (if what you’re thinking is poop).
Thanks for reinterating the “secret” of Abilene. I just lost a bit of respect for her to choose this route of retribution. I think she had a lot of other “holds”………..a bit too mean spirited for me………..I mean someone could really suffer , let alone die with this act of vengence.
It was Milly who used the pie, not Abilene
[...] 7. The Help by Kathryn Stockett [...]
Does anyone know the significance of the cover design? While pretty, I do not understand how it connects to the book. It brings to mind “Birds on a Wire”, but I have done some searches for that, to no avail. Any insight would be appreciated.
@Maureen, my personal interpretation was that the three birds can be seen to represent Skeeter, Aibileen and Minny, and they are both apart but also the same. That was my take on it, in any case, but I’m sure other people have other ideas.
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I’m a “southern white lady” who lived during this time period, and was upset to have “us” portrayed in the negative stereotypical way that seems to come so easily, even to other southerners. I’m not a fan of this book. Even though it’s just fiction, it perpetrates the idea that the majority of white southerners share the negative traits of both the men and women in the novel.
Both my mother and I had “help” and the stories of the people in the book do not ring true to my experiences. Shame on you, Kathryn Sockett. I surely hope this is the last book by you to be foisted on a gullible public who love to hate southerners.
I’m sorry you didn’t enjoy the book, but that is bound to happen sometimes.
I hardly think Stockett set out to make people hate southerners, as she is one herself, nor do I think her goal was to tell the story of southern white ladies. With THE HELP, Stockett is attempting to tell the story that goes untold and to give voice to the people who have historically not been allowed to speak. She never claims that her story represents all white southerners, and I don’t think that was her intention. However, I think it’s fair to say that the women depicted in this book also thought their “help” were happy and treated well….it’s not really about understanding the experience of the privileged because part of being privileged is NOT having to think about what the less privileged are experiencing. This book is a call for members of the privileged class to take a closer look at their relationships with “the help” and see if they are really as rosy as they’d like to believe.
I just finished the book and really enjoyed it and thought of my mother and aunts who were domestics during that timeframe. While I don’t recall any “horror” stories like those told in the book I do remember hearing them talk about the people they worked for in less than kind ways. I think the important thing about this book is that it gives the perspective of the help. The slaves were not happy dancing for massa and neither were the maids happy cooking and cleaning for the white lady. It was a job and people had to eat. It is not very different today. I worked in corporate America most of my adult life and many times found myself “dancing and smiling in the halls” to keep my job. Young women especially black girls should read this to remind us of how far we’ve come and how important an education is. What happened to Hilly possibly happened many times and it wasn’t always the solid stuff. What do you expect when you can cook the food but couldn’t sit at the same table to eat it. It was crazy. I am hoping for a sequel and definitely am pulling for a movie. Great Read!