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The Help / Kathryn Stockett
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This book by first-time novelist (and current Atlanta resident) Kathryn Stockett offers a glimpse into the 1962 segregated society of Jackson, Mississippi, where white women of even relatively modest means employed help (i.e. black maids) to cook, clean and essentially raise their children. Nearly one hundred years after the end of slavery, the relationships between the kitchen help and the mistress of the house are not all that different from antebellum times.

The story is told in the distinctive voices of two black maids, Minny and Aibileen, and one white woman, Miss Skeeter, who thinks that the status quo bears some scrutiny. The book’s narrative and Miss Skeeter’s secret interviews with the maids reveal fascinating stories, and in the context of the civil rights movement, Rosa Parks, and Martin Luther King, these stories threaten to turn Jackson society topsy-turvy.

The resolution of some of the loose ends at the conclusion of the book might seem a bit too manufactured, but the characters are wonderfully drawn and the voice of the Deep South of the 1960s rings resoundingly true in this New York Times bestseller. The movie has been announced for 2011. ©Ken Vesey, 12 June 2010
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