Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women:
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
Okay my faithful followers I'm going to be honest with you. The only reason why I decided to get this book was because of the movie coming out in August based off of it. The movie stars Emma Stone whom I love since seeing her in Zombieland and Easy A. So yes for that reason alone I decided to buy this book. I got my copy off of eBay for a great price for the hardback version.
This is perhaps one of the best books I've ever read. Period. The way Kathryn Stockett writes is new and refreshing. She has a way to keep you soo engrossed in the story that you absolutely will not want to put it down.
She tells the story from the perspective of three very different women:
Aibileen - She is an older maid who has seen many things in her time caring for white children. Even after the loss of her only child Treelor she continues to live her life after she overcomes her grief enough to move on.
Minny - A fast talking ball of fire. She speaks her mind to anyone and everyone (even her employers). However, even with all that fire and that attitude she is stuck in a marriage to a man just like her father (which she said she would never do) - a drunk. He not only drinks but he beats her. She does not think she can leave because she has 5 kids of her own to consider.
Miss Skeeter - She is a white girl who has just returned to Jackson. However, she wants nothing more than to leave and go to New York City to become a writer. She has to deal with her Southern mother who is always trying to get her married and is constantly trying to fix all of her imperfections - too tall, skinny, crazy hair. However, she does not want to get married simply because that is what is expected of her.
How do these three come together??
Well Skeeter gets a job at the Jackson Journal writing the Miss Myrna column which is a weekly column about helpful household tips. But how is a girl who's never cleaned a thing in her life to write a column about that?? Well she goes to her friend Elisabeth and asks her if she can speak to her maid Aibileen about it. Elisabeth agrees.
Soon the talk turns from the Miss Myrna column to something else that has been plaguing Skeeter. Her beloved maid Constantine stopped writing her all of sudden while she was at Ole Miss and when she comes home she finds her no longer there. So she starts asking Aibileen about Constantine and at first Abileen is resistant to help.
After awhile Skeeter begins to notice how her "friends" treat their maids. Especially Hilly Holbrook. Hilly is cold and manipulative to everyone (except her children). She has dreams of her husband going to a government office and would do almost anything to make sure it happens. Hilly is also starting a movement to make it a law to have a separate bathroom for the help outside because of sanitation. It is with this that Skeeter begins to really examine the people around her and just does not see how Hilly could be like this.
So Skeeter goes to Aibileen with a proposition - how about writing a book from the prospective of the help. Aibileen agrees because it was her son Treelor's dream to be a writer. Soon Abileen is able to convince Minny to help them and soon after she is able to get quite a few more maids to help in secret.
What really gets the maids to agree was the actions of Hilly Hollbrook. First she fires Minny for allegedly stealing her mother's silver and for not feeding her. Which as everyone in the white part of town and the black part of town all know is Minny's food is excellent.
Also, during this time Skeeter gets her first love and soon has her heart broken not only by Stuart but also by the cold, hatred afforded to her by her "friend" Hilly Holbrook.
In the end their book is published under Anonymous and even with the name of Jackson changed to Niceville and names changed everyone who reads it just know it is about Jackson. But thanks to Minny's Terrible Awful Thing to Hilly they will not be able to speak it aloud for fear of facing Hilly Holbrook.
Skeeter finally finds out the truth of what happened to Constantine from Aibileen (after much prodding mind you). So she goes to her mother with the truth. Her mother does not deny it and feels she should tell her daughter because she gets sicker by the day.
I am not going to tell you what Minny's Terrible Awful Thing is (trust me you will be like "what!!!") and I will not tell you about Skeeter's maid Constantine because you guys to need to have something to look forward while reading the book.
I will tell you this book had me laughing and crying. I loved it and I very much recommend you reading it! So if you want to do just that you can go here --> The Help (paperback version) or
The Help By Kathryn Stockett (hardback)Overall Rating:
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