The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Age Level: Adult
Format: Book

In her debut novel, Stockett writes about the civil rights struggles of African Americans in 1960s Mississippi. She chooses to tell her narrative in three voices: Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman who wants to be a writer, and two maids, Abileen and Minny. Looking for a way to become a published writer, Skeeter decides to record the stories of maids. At first, the maids are not interested, fearing the backlash of their white employers. But, Abileen finally decides to tell her stories to Skeeter, in covert meetings at Abileen's house. Abileen convinces Minny, her best friend, to also reveal her stories, and soon other maids decide to as well. What comes from these stories are the trials and tribulations each of these maids faced from their various employers. As Skeeter captures their words on paper, the city of Jackson is rocked by civil rights events, which only intensifies the maids' concerns over keeping their identities a secret.

This is an amazing debut novel! This novel transports readers back to the 1960s, allowing readers to see events through the eyes of Skeeter, Abileen and Minny. For me, the three voiced narrative worked perfectly; it gave me a better a understanding for the characters' thoughts and feelings. I have seen several reviews of this novel that discuss the poor dialect choices Stockett makes - I am not a dialect expert, so I cannot comment either way about the maids' dialect. What I can attest to is the novel's powerful ability to pull the reader into the narrative and refuse to let the reader go until the very end. The ending is a little predictable, but one can argue the ending shows a small victory for the Civil Rights Movement.

Historical fiction readers should pick up a copy of this novel.

Reviewed by Jessica