The HOUSTON SUN
The Help is a riveting story about the social and responsibly conscious awakening of eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan in the early 1960s to the ugly world of racism that has been around her, her whole life. As an awkward white college graduate, single Southern woman who is looking for love and a way to jump start a literary career, Skeeter, forms an unusual friendship with a maid by the name of Abileen, who gives the impression of being subservient, and works for Skeeter’s friends, the Leefolt family.
Attempting to find a clever way to write a column in the local newspaper about domestic work, Skeeter, enlists the help of Abileen, for she has no experience in such matters. With questions about what happened to her own nurse and maid, Constantine, Skeeter, begins to dig into the world of the colored women who fix their meals, wash their clothes, clean their houses and raise the children of all the white families in their Mississippi town.
After realizing the cruelty of the Jim Crow South is front row center in her circle of friends, in their homes, at their bridge parties and at their civic club, Skeeter begins to question her friends and her attitude towards Negroes, especially their maids. With the drive to still write professionally, Skeeter, writes a publisher in New York pitching an idea for a book, that examines the feelings of the maids who take care and raise the families of white Southerns. Not realizing how dangerous this can become, Skeeter sets out to uncover the real truth about the women that is considered just the help.
This book, is full of story lines as the lives of the Holbrooks, the Leefolts, the Phelans and their maids all intertwine not leaving a single person untouched. It also, shows how helping someone can change the life of another just by sitting down and taking the time to talk and listen. The Help, draws the reader into the Jim Crow South and gives insight of the mindset of whites and blacks during that era. It also tells a story of how a black maid raised a young white girl to be a little less racist than her counterparts and how it affects her actions as an adult. Characters such as a Minny and Holly Holbrook and Celia, give the book so much color and depth as their personalities are extreme and complete opposites.
Fearful at times but determined, Skeeter and Abileen with the help of Minny, who is far more sassy than Abileen who had lost a son, and several other maids eventually after much prodding tell a powerful story of love, ownership, struggle, cruelty, and the families of Mississippi and the Help that’s behind it.
The Houston Sun gives this book 5 Suns and places it in the Sun’s Book