The Help

The Help By Kathryn Stockett. Yesterday my book club discussed this authors fabulous first novel at our holiday meeting. We unanimously loved it. The story is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962. Civil Rights is active and hot, Medgar Evers, Martin Luther King, segregation is a serious issue in the deep south. Skeeter Phelan, the daughter of a cotton farmer tells the story. Although her family is well off, she is a down to earth, tom boyish sort of girl. After arriving back in Jackson after college, Skeeter decides she wants to be a writer. The other main characters are Minny, a sassy maid who speaks her mind and loves her family and gets fired over and over again. Aibileen, another maid that works for a friend of Skeeters is more of a wise, lovable nanny that adores the children she looks after and swallows her pride at the unfair treatment she does not deserve. These three women tell the story of what it was like to live and work in this town, at this time. Racial tension is heated in every aspect of their lives. The whole country can feel change is coming but it is a rough and rocky road to get there. Perhaps we are still traveling that road.  As a club we cast the movie (no doubt it will be). Aibileen reminds us of Queen Latifah (as she was in Secret Life of Bees, wise and calm) Minny can be played by Wanda Sykes (funny and sassy) and Skeeter ... we were stuck on but I think of Claire Danes, pale, shy, smart and lovely. A really enjoyable book, fantastic characters and one that I didn't want to end.