Book Review – The Help

June 29, 2010 deniseespie
Tags: Black women, Book Review, Kathryn Stockett, The Help

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

I’ve been to Mississippi.

When I think of it, the words racism, discrimination and segregation pop into my mind. Not only because I’ve read about the state’s history but because I’ve experienced the hate of Mississippi first hand – in the 2000s not the 1960s – the years Kathryn Stockett decides to explore in her first novel, The Help.

Stockett’s novel is a page-turner – no doubt. She spins a story of social awakening as seen from both sides of the American racial divide – the white side and the Black (when referring to Africa Americans, I always capitalize Black because after slavery and the civil right movement, we deserve to be capitalized) side with no gray in between.

Here’s the story line in a few paragraphs:

Newly graduated from Ole Miss with a degree in English but neither an engagement ring nor a steady boyfriend, Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan returns to her parents’ cotton farm in Jackson, Mississippi. Although it’s 1962 – during the early years of the civil rights movement – she is largely unaware of the tensions gathering around her town.

Skeeter is in some ways is an outsider. Her friends, bridge partners and fellow members of the Junior League are married. Most subscribe to the racist attitudes of the era – mistreating and despising the Black maids/nannies whom they count on to raise their children. Skeeter is not racist but she is naive and unwittingly patronizing.

When her best friend makes a political issue of not allowing the “help” to use the toilets in their employers’ houses, she decides to write a book in which the community’s maids – their names disguised – talk about their experiences.

Fear of discovery and retribution at first keep the maids from complying but a stalwart woman named Aibileen, who has raised and nurtured 17 white children, and her friend Minny, who keeps losing jobs because she talks back when insulted and abused, sign on with Skeeter’s risky project, and eventually 10 others follow.

Aibileen and Minny share the narration with Skeeter as Stockett attempts to accomplishment reproducing Black vernacular. Too bad she has trouble with this (but I’ll get to this later).

Stockett does accomplish delineating the conditions of Black servitude a century after the Civil War. In general, she does capture the feelings of Black women servicing as maids/nannies in Mississippi in the 1960s and of the “nigra” hating white women who employ them.

Please note that she does stumble with the ebonic vernacular of Aibileen and Minny, writing “law” instead of “lawd” and sentences such as “She don’t pick up her own baby for rest a the day” instead of “She don’t pick up her own baby for rest da day.”

These mishaps make my skin itch especially since Stockett admits, “I was scared that I was crossing a terrible line – writing in the voice of Black people.” The reason I itch is because Stockett was raised in Mississippi mostly by a Black maid/nanny. So, Ms. Stockett, did you listen to her or just find comfort in her full bossom and thick hips when no one – including your mama – took time to show you love? I’m not being cruel. Stockett tells the story of her “mama-like” Black maid and heartless mother herself. A visit to urbandictionary.com would have done you good. I shake my finger at her and her editors for this.

The ironic portion of the novel is the murders of Medgar Evers and Martin Luther King Jr., which are seen through the eyes of Black Americans but go largely unobserved by the white community. I wish Stockett would have increased her word count on these portions.

I remember the tension between Blacks and whites when O.J. was found not guilty so I know there was a huge amount of tension between the races when King was killed. It would have added “something” to the story. I wanted to hear more from these “cake-eating, card-playing, Tab-drinking, cigarette-smoking women” who plan fundraisers for the “Poor Starving Children of Africa,” when the father of civil rights was immortalized – his spirit was releasing from his body and taking its rightful place next to our God in heaven.

Stockett further says, “I am afraid I’ve told too much.” Not so. Although the Black maid in the deep south story has been told countless times, The Help is a story that should be told because there is an authenticity in the white guilt, the white hate and the Black anger and sometimes a fictitious story about real events is all some can digest.

The goal of The Help according to Stockett is, “ For women to realize, we are just two people with not much separating us.” She doesn’t accomplish this – at all – but she still writes a good story – so read it – because it is a poignant reminder of the inhumane treatment past generations of Black women endured to ensure a better life for the generations to come. If the generations that follow ignore these stories – than we are all ignorant!

When I think of Aibileen, Minny and Yule May, I’m thankful for my mother Lila, my aunt Helen and my grandmother Macie – all encouraged me to ignore the limitations that society attempts to place on Blacks and women and be as powerful, inspirational and intellectual as God made me to be.

Read The Help – it’s worth a visit to the library (I’m a big advocate of supporting our local libraries) or bookstore.

Next – look for my review of Incendiary by Chris Cleave.

I also recommend reading Little Bee by Chris Cleave and A Thousand Splendid Suns by Khaled Hosseini. Both are on my all-time favorite book list but I didn’t have time to write reviews of them.

Happy reading! Oh, and lookout for the movie version of The Help, which begins filming this summer.

P.S. I wrote this blog at 10:30 p.m. on a Tuesday while watching Chopped on the Food Network and drinking Pinot Noir so don’t blame me if something doesn’t make sense…blame the wine.

Entry Filed under: Book Reviews

One Comment Add your own

• 1. Erica Jones  |  July 6, 2010 at 4:35 am

  Great review Soror. I think after reading your review I will definitely go read this book…the Pinot Noir didn’t affect your writing a bit

  Reply

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