Another From Diane, The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Here is another review from a faithful customer, Diane McCarthy, one of our favorite store friends. The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Kathryn Stockett has crafted a beautiful story filled with love, heartache, sacrifice and triumph of the human spirit over adversity. The Help tells the story of Aibileen, Minny, Constantine, Hilly, Elizabeth and Skeeter; black maids and their white employers. The time is 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi where the racial divide is more polarizing than the Berlin Wall. The maids work for 95 cents an hour, ironing, polishing, cleaning, scrubbing, cooking, and serving. They are expected to raise the white family's children, but not fit to use their toilets. The women, grateful for the work, have learned to suppress their anger with monotone responses designed to neutralize any further interest. Three of the characters embark on an unprecedented journey because they are chafing at the restraints imposed on them by the rigid social hierarchy of the deep south.

Pick up this remarkable story and prepare to be transported back to a time in which color dictated the existence of life for all. The Help will weave its magic, with characters so fully fleshed out they jump off the page and into your heart. Possibly the best book I will read in 2009 – it resonated with me long after I regretfully turned the last page.