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Thursday, August 26, 2010
"The 'Real' Maids of Jackson, Mississippi."
Title: The Help
By: Kathryn Stockett
Ms. Stockett has a true ear for dialogue, a gift for developing her characters and for creating a fast pace in this remarkable novel, but it's her understanding of the hearts and minds of women that has made this a direct hit for me. The setting is 1962, in Jackson, Mississippi, deep in the racially divided American South. Skeeter Phelan is a young, white college graduate, just hired on by the local newspaper to write an advice column about housecleaning. She asks a neighbor’s black housemaid Minny how to get rid of “ring around the collar” on a man's shirt, a safe first topic. Their friendship begins and Skeeter devises a plan for a new book consisting of interviews with black maids, describing what it’s like to work in a white home. Aibileen and her friend Minny, a renowned cook, enlist their own friends and fellow maids to share their experiences. Ms. Stockett skillfully pinpoints a character's decision to cross the line, weighing the risk it may have upon her personal safety, and chooses anyway to join in this group. They all meet in Aibileen's kitchen where Skeeter takes down their stories; of the multitude of white children whom these black women have bathed, fed, clothed, consoled, indulged, encouraged, been patient with and suffered with, and watched grow up. The black housemaids and Skeeter do more than share confidences, they also learn to trust one another in the process. The women confess often hilarious stories and divulge terrible secrets about their previous and current employers. Although the names have been changed, will these white employers be recognizable? Skeeter is encouraged by a book editor in NY that the book will be a sure financial success and submits the manuscript. Ultimately the proceeds from the sale of the book are divided equally amongst all of the conspiring writers. The whole town of Jackson is in an uproar because of reading about themselves!
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helpreader November 11, 2011 at 12:21 p.m.:
if you actually read the book its not minny that helps skeeter with the newspaper cleaning article its aibileen. read the book before you make a review.