The Help

I just read The Help by Kathryn Stockett. I have to say, I liked it! The humor clicks with me. An example, Aibileen is reminiscing about her son and a game they played when he was younger.

"One day I say Crisco. He scratch his head. He just can't believe I done won the game with something simple as Crisco. Came to be a secret joke with us, meaning something you can't dress up no matter how you try. We start calling his daddy Crisco cause you can't fancy up a man done run off on his family. Plus he is the greasiest no-count you ever known."
That has to be the best way to describe a scumbag, I've ever read!

Of course it isn't all humor. It is set in the 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi during one of the hardest times in America. The march with Martin Luther King Jr. in Washington, DC. The assassination of President Kennedy are just some of the back drops on display in the book.

All of the characters in the book are so real and personal. After reading about them, it feels like you know them, probably because, you know someone in your life like them. That is how it felt to me. Aibileen is so sincere, and just full of motherly warmth and love in this story. Minny speaks her mind even if it gets her into trouble, but it helps so many people out because they need to hear the truth. Skeeter is in that awkward time in life when a person is on the cusp of finding out what they can really do with their life and then reach for it. Celia was a character I just wanted to hug fiercely. She is so naive and child like.

The Help is such a wonderful read. All of these ladies find their strength in some form or fashion in this book. You watch them grow and in a way find a common ground with one of them. Whether to not be pushed into a mold, be who you are truly meant to be, get out of a dangerous situation and live for yourself. It shows how when one person is strong, you can draw your own strength from them and watch it spread from you to others.

I say this is To Read!

The movie is very good as well. For a book to movie interpretation, it was well done.