The Help

By: Kathryn Stockett
Category: Fiction
Stars: ****

"The story is about African American maids working in white households in Jackson, Mississippi during the early 1960s. The novel is told from the point of view of three narrators: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children, and who has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson, an African-American maid whose back-talk towards her employers results in her having to frequently change jobs, exacerbating her desperate need for work as well as her family's struggle with money; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman and recent college graduate who, after moving back home, discovers that a maid that helped raise her since childhood has abruptly disappeared and her attempts to find her have come to naught."

After hearing from all my Aunts and friends how great this book is, I found it at Costco for a good price so I thought I'd give it a try-and I'm really glad I did.  I thought the story was well written and very moving (and yes, shocking at times).  I really enjoyed that the author put both ends of the spectrum when it came to the maid's stories-some are horrible and shocking, while others actually don't mind working for who they work for.  Same goes for the women who hire these maids-there are some who treat them horrible (like the character Hilly-you will love to hate her!) and some who can't even get out of bed without the help of the women who serve them.

However, I am only giving it 4 stars because I found the ending a little rushed, and a few plot lines weren't wrapped up quite as nicely as I would have liked.  Stockett could have easily made this book 5 chapters longer and I wouldn't have minded.  Still, the overall story was good (I stayed up til 6 AM to finish it...yeah, that should say something.  It's been a while since I've done that) and I strongly recommend it.

--On a side note, I went and saw the movie yesterday with my sister and mom, and we loved it.  Mom announced it was the 'best movie I've seen in a long time,' and I thought it was extremely well acted. 
Jessica Chastain (the actress playing Celia Foote) steals every scene she's in, as does Octavia Spencer (the actress playing Minny)...and since they work together, they're scenes are almost always laugh-out-loud funny.  Also funny was Sissy Spaceck, who plays Hilly's aging mother.

In some ways, the movie was better than the book, though there were a few scenes that I wanted to see on the screen that weren't there (for those of you who have read the books, the scene were Minny and Celia chase off the naked drunk in the backyard was missing from the movie, which was the one scene I really wanted to see).  Still, even if you never read the book, go see the movie.  You won't be disappointed.