I usually don't get into the craze of popular books, but I'd heard about The Help from a variety of different sources, and with the movie out now I decided to read it. I am really glad I did.

I normally don't read many books that are over about 300 pages. This one is close to 450 pages. But it flowed so well. It takes place in the early 1960s and is told from the point of view of several different ladies. The main viewpoint is of Aibileen who is a black maid who cares for a little girl who begins the book at age 2. There is also the viewpoint of Minny who is about 15 years younger than Aibileen, also a black maid and at the beginning of the story loses her job. The last voice we hear from is Ms. Skeeter who is a white lady in her 20s who wants to be a writer and gets it in her head to interview black maids and compile a book of their interviews.

The book is written by Kathryn Stockett who is not black and hasn't been a maid, but she did have a maid growing up. The way she is able to capture (what I believe to be) the dichotomy of the black and white worlds and how they intersected and didn't in Jackson, Mississippi is amazing.

There is so much going through these ladies' heads and it's definitely not all rosy in there. All of them can be judgmental. All of them hold their tongues sometimes and all of them have something that hurts them. Aibileen hates how her white lady doesn't care at all about her little girl and secretly loves how the little girl calls Aibee mama. Minny finds herself in a situation where her white lady protects her from something she wasn't able to do on her own, and doesn't know how to thank you her, it's not something that has ever happened to her before and she is at a loss for words. Skeeter deals with the pressure of her mother, who is fighting stomach illnesses, to get married. All three of them have to hide what they are doing from basically everyone because they don't know what the consequences might be if they are caught writing a book about what black maids think of their white bosses.

I really liked how the stories told aren't all one sided. There are good bosses and bad ones. And there are different kinds of maids too. Minny has a mouth on her but is an amazing cook. Aibileen likes little children but won't stay with a family as long as other maids will do.

These women seem so real. The situations are told in such detail you can see yourselves there, truly imagine them in your head. I read over 200 pages in one day, just to finish this book, which is truly rare for me. I thoroughly enjoyed this book even when there are a few shockers, like the "pie" that might be as inspiring as other parts. It is fictional but it opened a door into a part of history that I was unfamiliar with and was interested to see a story set in that setting. I highly recommend this book and I am very much looking forward to seeing the movie this week with my mother (who also really liked this book).

Recommended: Yes