Book Review: The Help

I started reading "The Help" last week and finished it over the weekend.  I thought it was a good book.  It is set in the early 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi during the early stages of the Civil Rights movement.  (I've actually spent some time in Jackson.  Interesting place. The first and only time I've ever had boiled peanuts was in Jackson, MS.  Yes, I said boiled peanuts, but I digress.)

"The Help" follows mostly 3 women who live and work in Jackson.  Aibileen - a black woman who is a maid to Mrs. Elizabeth Leefolt, Minny - a black maid for Miss Hilly's mama, Mrs. Walters, and Skeeter (Eugenia) - a white woman who hangs out with the society "ladies" and grew up on a cotton plantation.

Skeeter has just graduated from college and has moved back home to Jackson.  All of her friends are married and having children.  Skeeter wants to be a writer. She comes up with the idea to write a book about "The Help" in Jackson.  She enlists the help of Aibileen, who in turn convinces Minny and other maids to tell Skeeter their stories.  Because they live in such a volatile place and time, they are all very scared about talking to Skeeter.  They are worried that people will find out and the backlash will be terrible.  They make her promise to change all the names in her book, which of course she agrees to do.

The book is filled with stories of black women working for white women - raising their children, cleaning their homes, cooking all of their meals.  It's about the trials they went thru - being accused of stealing, having to use a separate bathroom from the white folk because of all the diseases the black folk carry, loving the white kids when their own mothers didn't.  All very fascinating.

What it all boils down to is relationships and how we treat other people, even those we deem different than ourselves.  I found it to be an interesting read and would recommend it to anyone that likes a good book.