The Help

I stayed up way too late this week reading. I just finished “The Help,” by Kathryn Stockett. It is the story of three women living in Mississippi during the sixties. Two of the women are black maids in white households in a very racist world. These women tend to all the domestic chores and raise the babies for the white families that employ them. The book talks of the affection, love, abuse, shame and fear that are part of the complicated relationships in an unequal world. The third woman is a young white college graduate who is also trapped in this racist, sexist world. Their lives become intertwined as they work together on a project to share the stories of these black women. I cried, I laughed, I cheered and felt hot anger in this poignant story. If you enjoy feeling part of the story of humanities small triumphs over evil, read this book. It will leave you thinking about it's message for many days.