The Help by Kathryn Stockett

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

WARNING! THIS BOOK IS NOT OF OUR GENRE! (That is intended to be like the black box FDA warning that is required on every antidepressant medication, that the medication might cause suicidal thoughts. Wait a second. Isn’t it depressed people that sometimes think that life is not worth living and then sometimes kill themselves? Okay, it is a bullshit warning, just as is my warning about this book.) Really, The Help is not our usual man-action book. It is the first novel by the author whose action takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in 1963 and 1964. This is a story about the black maids, mostly Aibileen and Minny, who work for the white women in town and the degree of mistreatment that was accepted as normal. The schools are separate but not equal, and there are even separate bathrooms in private homes. Meanwhile, the civil rights movement is underway and it is bringing changes to this pre-civil war town. On a tangent for a second, I remember traveling through Alabama, Georgia, and Florida in about 1960, age 10, and seeing the separate public bathrooms, marked as “colored only” and “whites only” and asking my parents about it. And, my wife was raised by a black nanny in L.A. The nanny is the one who carried her home from the hospital, and she was in the house until my wife left for college. The nanny, Neva, was a member of their family. You might guess this book came to me from Jean. Unfortunately, despite remarkable dialogue, it took me about half the book to really get excited about the content. But, with the gradual character development, it finally hooked me. The last half makes up for what the first half did not have. The book has a plot about writing a book, this same book. A cast off woman from the Junior League decides to follow her journalistic bent and finds a NYNY publisher who is willing to print her work, if it is good enough. She interviews a dozen maids about the discrimination and harsh treatment they’ve been put through by their employers. But, these were also dangerous times for blacks to speak out. When the book does get published, it quickly sells out and a second printing is required. Although it was intended to be an anonymous work, people quickly figure out that it had to have taken place in Jackson. All hell breaks loose among the white women as their tight little white quasi-aristocratic society begins to disintegrate. This one will take a little time, but by the end, it was a very good read. Now, I’m ready for another adventure book.

West Coast Don