The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Have you heard of The Help? It's been on the Best Seller list, so I'd be surprised if you hadn't. That is, of course, if you're a huge book nerd like I am. Anyway, I put myself on the waiting list at the library and tried to be patient while I waited for my turn to come. I was so excited...and when my day came I raced to the library to pick it up and start reading.

I wasn't disappointed. I don't think you'd be either. The Help is a story about race relations in Mississippi in the 60s, specifically relationships between black maids and their white employers. I don't claim to know anything about that type of relationship, but I suppose now I know more than before I read the book. Obviously it was a sensitive topic, a little bit uncomfortable, but I feel like usually the exploration of uncomfortable topics provide the reader with greater benefits in the end than staying in one's comfort zone.

It's told from multiple different points of view - 2 different black maids and 1 white employer. The white employer is somewhat of a social radical and she sets out to write an expose about what it's like to be a black employee of a white person in Mississippi. She interviews over a dozen maids and compiles their commentary into a novel. Her exploration of this topic, while secret, eventually leads her to cut off ties with the people she has always called her friends.

I've never been to Mississippi. I can't say how far the culture with regards to race relations has come since the 60s, but luckily most of the views found in The Help have long since gone out of style. It makes you wonder, though, what beliefs do we have today that will be viewed as comparably ignorant in 40 years?

The story is compelling and the narrative is beautiful. The plot sucks you in and makes you think about your own beliefs, and what you would be willing to do, how far you'd be willing to break out of your own comfort zone to stand up and fight against something you thought was wrong but everyone else thought was right. Definitely worthy of its spot on the best seller list.