The Help

“Sensational Bestseller” is what I found on the Internet that describes the book The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I don’t tend to appreciate hype given to books, especially one that so obviously would have ended up on Oprah’s Book Club (oh wait), but I’ve heard from two promiscuous readers whose taste I trust that this one is worth it, and it was.

The Help addresses race relations in 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi with particular attention paid to the unique relationship of white women and the African-American women they hire as domestic help. These women raise white children, clean homes, and are subjected to daily microaggressions (and oftentimes macroaggressions) and indignities, most notably in having to use a separate toilet. Recall, this is when Jim Crow was reigning supreme and “separate but equal” was accepted as appropriate.

The story is centered on the experiences of three women in particular: Aibileen is an African-American domestic housekeeper for a beta-level socialite, Minny is an African-American domestic housekeeper who regularly is fired for mouthing off to her employers, and Skeeter is a Caucasian-American college graduate with the drive to make things happen. The story is written by a Caucasian-American woman whose family employed African-American domestic housekeeper when she was a child. This seemed on the one hand bold that she would expose a shameful part of her culture but also risky that 2/3 of the book was written from the perspective of the help. I’m not in any position to know if she did this with grace and humility as I am not African-American, didn’t grow up in the time period, and have never been employed as full-time domestic help.

As this is, primarily, a book review, I should add that I’m not sure this book was particularly well written. I got so frustrated at times that I began to keep a list in the back. More notably:

1. Why did the author introduce the central conflict on page ten in the first chapter? This is way too soon. I wish she had given the story a bit of time to unfold.

2. Further, I don’t understand how on Earth Skeeter was ever friends with Hilly and Elizabeth and who in God’s name is this Hilly woman? She is absolutely awful and I’m in no position to know this, but were people really that awful? Maybe they were and I am being consciously naïve about race relations in the South in the 1960s, but Hilly doesn’t seem like a real person to me, no one is that horrid. This might be my problem.

3. Also, I never really understood why Skeeter cared. What event or experience raised her awareness to this blatant violation of human rights? I never really caught on to that.

4. And I am so petty, I’m sorry, but using the phrase “She is the child now and I am the mother” just seemed like such a cliché. There had to be a better way to illuminate the gravity of that situation.

However, the themes addressed are profound and heartbreaking and the story is very good. I would highly recommend reading it and I am looking forward to Viola Davis’ performance as Aibileen in the movie coming out in August. It looks like it will be a very emotional film and my hope is that it will spur conversations about our shared history in the United States and what micro— (and macro—) aggressions look like today.