I wasn't particularly anxious to read Kathryn Stockett's debut novel, The Help, even as it made its way up the bestseller lists over the past several months. Perhaps I was put off by the length (450 pages). Or maybe it was too painful to acknowledge that a novel set in the decade of my adolescence is considered "historical fiction."All that changed when I heard Kathryn Stockett speak at the American Library Association conference in July. Soft-spoken and smart, she talked about her relationship with books and their importance in her own life. I had to read her book to see if she is as good a storyteller in print as in person. She is.
The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962. Although the Civil Rights Movement is gaining momentum, Jackson is a town where white women hire black maids to raise their children, but build separate toilets for the help in the garage. Skeeter Phelan, a recent college graduate and aspiring journalist, begins to see the rigid social structure of her hometown in a new light.
Enlisting the help of two black maids, Skeeter decides to write a book about the relationship between the town's black maids and their white employers. Despite the danger of working on such a project, two of the maids agree to be interviewed and to help Skeeter get clandestine interviews with others. The Help is told from their, as well as Skeeter's, point of view. Stockett does a wonderful job of telling the story in three different voices and capturing the emotions of the time.
Sad, but funny; provoking, but warm; outrageous, but believable. A remarkable debut.
