Reviewed by Maggie Perkovic 28th Jan on show.
Wow, I really liked this book!!
Jackson Mississipi, 1962. Black maids raise white children but are not trusted not to steal the silver. Aibileen is a black maid, smart, regal and raising her 17th white child, yet something shifted inside her the day her only son died while his bosses looked the other way. Minny, Aibileen's best friend is by some way the sassiest woman in Mississippi but even Minny's extraordinary cooking won't protect her from the consequences of her tongue.
Skeeter returns home with a degree at 22, and a head full of hope but her mother wants to see a ring on her engagement finger. Seeking solace from Constantine, the maid who raised her, Skeeter finds she has gone, but no one will tell her where.
Three very different women whose lives converge over a very clandestine project that will not only put them at risk but change lives in Jackson for ever.
The Help is a deeply moving book which describes those lines that everyone whether mothers, daughters the help or the boss to abide by. I found this almost as affecting as "Thousand Splendid Suns" in so far as the sheer helplessness of those in a system that refuses to move with the times and see how the move for civil rights is affecting everyone in the immediate vicinity except them.
Although work of fiction this novel is based on facts. Rosa Parkes did have the audacity to sit in an area on a bus for 'Whites only'. A young activist was branded and lynched for standing up for his rights in the racist deep south and another young Negro was blinded for daring to use a white toilet in a private house, 'Coloureds were to use their own toilet for fear of them spreading disease to Whites' I quote!!!
An excellent read.
Review by Maggie Perkovic
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