The Help by Kathryn Stockett

“We are just two people. Not that much separate us. Not nearly as much as I’d thought.” (p. 451)

There’s nothing better than finding a book with characters so real that you feel as though you may know them. At times these characters feel as real as the person sitting next to you. While Kathryn Stockett says, “The Help is fiction, by and large” one is left wondering if many of the stories told and retold in this book shed some light on the good and the bad times in the 1960s in Jackson, Mississippi.

The story is set in Jackson during a time of segregation in the South and Martin Luther King Jr. marching at the capital in D.C. Stockett being from Jackson has knowledge about the town, the high society and the history behind African American workers in the south. In particular, Stockett has background knowledge about the African women who worked tirelessly for the white women and their families. One of the leading characters, Aibileen, explains as the book opens:

Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960. A church baby we like to call it. Taking care a white babies, that’s what I do, along with the cooking and the cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning. (page 1)

The storyline is told through the perspectives of two different African American women, Minnie and Aibileen, and from a white woman, Miss Skeeter. Skeeter works underground to make life better for the African Americans as she comes to realize all that has happened within her own community between the black and white relations (in the workplace, in homes and in their own community). Skeeter compiles the stories of the working “help” all to pay tribute to the lady that “raised” her, her black Mammy, Constantine.

I came across this book at Costco but had heard some about it at a recent book club meeting (we did not pick this one, but now I think I may need to suggest it). I took this heavy yellow book with me to Florida for Mid-Winter Break and noticed something throughout my time in Orlando and West Palm Beach. The Help was everywhere. It was on the bookshelves of several stores I passed in the airports, the mall, the airplane and even resting on the lounge chairs around me at the pool! I made new friends along the way as many a person told me, “I just finished that book!” or “Don’t you just love The Help? Stockett tells the story so well!” Most often I was responding that I was either in the midst of the book and was enjoying it, and at the end I was agreeing with others, that “Yes, this was a really good book and it left me wanting more!”

This is a book that will consume you and you will not want to put it down! This being said, it’s also a book that will leave you wondering about the future of the characters when it ends… and it leaves you hoping for more!

On a side note, I had a personal connection to this book that made me stop many times and think about along the reading journey. When I was growing up there were two African American ladies that worked for my Nana and Grandpa as well as my parents. Tommie came a few days week and did our laundry, folding and ironing. Many times she would stay at night to watch my sister and I while my parents were out. We loved finding ways to entertain her and make her laugh. She loved my sister and I and showered us with smiles, hugs, winks and laughs. The second lady, Elizabeth, might as well have been another Grandma to me. I can to this day remember telling my friends at recess that I did have three Grandmas and I always included Elizabeth. Elizabeth was around when my Mom was a child and took care of my Mom while her parents were away as well as running the kitchen in my grandparents’ home. Elizabeth could make a mean chocolate soufflé or recite a recipe off the top of her head. I have often thought about Elizabeth (she passed away many years ago) and the love, support and influence she has had on my life. Elizabeth was special… she made you feel good, she took you fun places, she babysat when my parents were gone at night or for a long period of time. I always thought Elizabeth would be around when I was little, always. I can only hope that all I knew about Elizabeth and Tommie as a child and young adult was true… they were well taken care of when they came to work, they were shown much appreciation and gratitude for all that they did and they received financial support they were unable to work. I can only hope that we gave them as much love as they gave us.