Plot Summary
The Help is an amazing story which gives a voice to black women working as hired help in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's. Although it is a work of fiction, it resonates with the reader, making us believe that this could very well be a true story. The cast of characters is extremely well drawn and believable and the fact that the author introduces so many different types of characters makes her novel come across as true to life.
There is the character of Aibileen, a woman of integrity whose actions live up to her values. Then there's Minny who is extremely outspoken and, in many ways, the opposite of Aibileen. Minny gets fired from one job after another because she is such a loudmouth but, like Aibileen, she is a good person at heart. And then, of course, there's Eugenia Phelan or "Skeeter", the ingénue who has just graduated from college and who tends to view the world through rose-tinted glasses. Despite her naïveté, Skeeter isn't afraid to speak the truth and this is exactly what she does when she returns home to find rampant racism in the way in which white people treat their black domestic help.
The villain of the story is Hilly, a blatantly racist, white woman who is very prominent in Jackson society. Hilly is trying to legally mandate separate bathrooms for black help because she believes that black and white people have different diseases. Skeeter gets Minny, Hilly's maid to tell her story and Aibileen also pitches in. We learn that Minny has been fired for using an indoor bathroom during a thunderstorm. Starting with these two maids, Skeeter's book grows to include the voices of many black maids in Jackson, Mississippi. The climax of the book is a startlingly funny moment that must be read to be appreciated. Eventually, Skeeter's book is published and she shares the royalties with the maids.
Kathryn Stockett is a native of Jackson, Mississippi. She studied English and Creative Writing and worked in magazine publishing for several years. She says that a black maid she was close to in childhood formed the inspiration for The Help which has sold over 10 million copies and was on the NYT bestseller list for 100 weeks. It has also been made into a movie by the same name with an all star cast, including Viola Davis, Octavia Spencer, Sissy Spacek, Jessica Chastain, Bryce Dallas Howard and Emma Stone.
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"This has now become one of my favorite books. It so well written, an so funny yet still so moving ( maybe I cried, maybe I didn't). The movie is the most horrible interpretation of the novel ever, I left the movie theater crushed at what they did to my beloved book ( so if you liked the movie you will LOVE./just die over this book). It is a page turner and I just could not put it down. I do, however, want to address some criticism I have read about this book- some people find it offensive and argue that it doesn't accurately depict the gross racism of the time and it "sugar coats' civil rights I strongly disagree with these sentiments BECAUSE the novel is through the eyes of a young white girl and it's about her struggles, her changes, and her coming of age story it is NOT a story about civil rights. Once people all agree that is a coming of age novel rather than a historical novel about civil rights then we can then all agree on how amazing this book is. It's a must read !"
—
Bianca (5 out of 5 stars)
Publisher Summary
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
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 17th 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.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women—mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends—view one another.
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About Kathryn Stockett
Kathryn Stockett was born and raised
in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a
degree in English and creative writing, she moved to New York City, where she
worked in magazine publishing and marketing for nine years. She currently lives
in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. The blockbuster novel The Help is her first novel.
About the Narrators
Jenna Lamia is an actress and award-winning audiobook narrator. She has won the prestigious Audie Award, as well as more than a dozen AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her narration of The Book of Polly was named a 2018 Outstanding Audiobook Narration by RUSA. She narrated Mary E. Pearson’s The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which won a YALSA Amazing Audiobooks for Young Adults award, and Carol Lynch Williams’ The Chosen One, for which she received the 2010 Audie Award for Best Female Solo Narration. She has appeared on and off-Broadway, and her acting credits include appearances on Oz, Law & Order: SVU, and NYPD Blue. She has attended Amherst College, New York University, and the Sorbonne in Paris.
Cassandra Campbell has won multiple Audie Awards, Earphones Awards, and the prestigious Odyssey Award for narration. She was been named a “Best Voice” by AudioFile magazine and in 2018 was inducted in Audible’s inaugural Narrator Hall of Fame.
Bahni Turpin, winner of numerous AudioFile Earphones Awards and several prestigious Audie Awards for her narrations, was named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine in 2019. Publishers Weekly magazine named her Narrator of the Year for 2016. She is an ensemble member of the Cornerstone Theater Company in Los Angeles. She has guest starred in many television series, including NYPD Blue, Law & Order, Six Feet Under, Cold Case, What about Brian, and The Comeback. Film credits include Brokedown Palace, Crossroads, and Daughters of the Dust. She is also a member of the recording cast of The Help, which won numerous awards.
Octavia
Spencer is a veteran character actress and one of Hollywood’s most-sought-after
talents. She has become a familiar fixture on both television and silver
screen. Her critically acclaimed performance as Minny in the DreamWorks feature
film The Help won her a 2012 Academy Award, a BAFTA Award, a Golden
Globe Award, a SAG Award, and a Broadcast Film Critics’ Choice Award, among
countless other honors. She is a native of Montgomery, Alabama, and holds a BS
from Auburn University. She lives in Los Angeles.