"The Help"

Stockett, Kathryn. The Help. The Berkley Publishing Group: New York. 2009. (534 pages)

                I had an absolutely amazing time reading this book. It had been recommended to me by a lot of people and when my mom bought it for me I decided to give it a shot. I was somewhat used to reading a different style of book because the last book I read was The Lucky One. When I started The Help, I fell in love with it during the very first chapter.

                This book was very addicting yet at the same time quite challenging. Because the book took place in the South during the 1960s and two of the three narrators were African American and not well educated, the language was hard to follow at times. The slang and uneducated use of English made the read a challenge, but gave the book a quality that I wasn’t used to reading. The use of three narrators resulted in a unique set up that allowed the story to be told in a variety of ways. Each narrator, Miss Skeeter, Minny and Aibeleen had diverse backgrounds, which made the plot complete and well rounded. The variety of narrators and the quick introduction too many characters at the beginning made the first 50 pages or so confusing. Once the plot thickened and I started to get to “know” the characters better there weren’t any problems differentiating the between them.

                Another aspect that made The Help challenging to read was the content within the book. The story deals with the horrible lives of how African Americans were treated in the South during the Civil Rights movements. I am used to reading about these types of things in textbooks, but reading it in a different setting, such as in this book, it was heartbreaking. I felt like I grew close to the characters and seeing how they were treated was so difficult to read.

                On the other hand, reading about this historical time period was really enjoyable. I tend to read books that take place in modern times, so reading this book was a new experience. It was neat to “see” the cultural differences and to experience something new. The combination of compelling stories, bitter attitudes, heartwarming relationships, and shocking accounts resulted in a wonderful book. There wasn’t too much of one person or story, it was a well thought out, balanced book.

                The Help was similar to the last book I read, The Lucky One because each told the story through the eyes of three narrators. I really began to enjoy this set up in the first book and became accommodated to it by the end of the second. The two books are different because The Help was not a love story whereas The Lucky One was a book based on a romantic love triangle. This is also what made The Help unique to me because a great percentage of the books I read happen to be romance novels. I learned through reading this book that I can enjoy different genres as well.

                Overall, I would definitely recommend this book. The courage shown by the women in the South at this time was extremely motivational and was great to read about. The depth that the story goes into the character’s lives is unbelievable and it becomes impossible to put down.