Title: The HelpAuthor: Kathryn Stockett
If you're only going to read one new book in 2009, it should be The Help (and I've read some pretty darn good books this year). Several readers recommended it in the Stieg Larsson book giveway comments, and I was surprised when my library copy arrived two days after I reserved it. This was the other book I read at the hospital with Isaac, and it definitely made up for the other one.
The Help is the story of three women living in Jackson, MS in the 1960s: Skeeter is home from college, trying to adjust to living in a place where there aren't jobs for college-educated women and her peers are all married and busy with babies; Aibileen and Minny are maids employed by Skeeter's friends. Skeeter decides to become a writer, and hatches a plan to write sort of an ethnography about the real-life experiences of domestic workers in Jackson. At great personal risk, Aibileen, Minny and a dozen of their friends agree to help. The characters in this book are great, and the little side stories are so rich, and it's such a wonderful, multi-layered book about bravery and doing the right thing. I predict it becomes the next big book club book, if it hasn't done so already.
3 comments:
do you still have the library copy? can i borrow it if so? i hate delaying gratification.
Currently reading it...but I find myself putting it down and not wanting to pick it back up...hope I find "the light" soon.
The library just notified me I can pick this up. Thanks for the review.
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