The Help

Here's my review on this new novel The Help by Kathryn Stockett.  I finished reading it last week and true to the comments and reviews from the book about the book, I pushed myself to read it up to 2 am in the morning because that is the only time I can read without any interruption from my children!

SO, here's a basic synopsis of The Help that I took from Wikipedia so that you will have an idea about the story line:

The novel is told from the perspective of three characters: Aibileen Clark, a middle-aged African-American maid who has spent her life raising white children and has recently lost her only son; Minny Jackson, an African-American maid who has often offended her employers despite her family's struggles with money and her desperate need for jobs; and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman who has recently moved back home after graduating college to find out her childhood maid has mysteriously disappeared. These three stories intertwine to explain how life in Jackson, Mississippi revolves around "the help"; yet they are always kept at a certain distance because of racial lines.


After reading it, I was so inspired by the black maids because they were really sincere on doing their jobs as maids or helper. Not like people nowadays, they are not doing their jobs to perfection, even though their jobs requires them to sit in a well air-cond room and work. Reading this novel always inflicts something in me because it seems like my daily chores really resembles the chores that had to be done by the black helpers and looking at my hand right now, you can see that it's not as soft as other woman's hand where it's hard and coarse by detergents, water and stuffs. But I do not regret my choice of being a full time housewife and mother to 5 children (and still counting) and I think of it as a blessing of my life. I secretly hope and think of opening The Help agency where I 'll teach local ladies to do house chores efficiently and cook nice foods. But that's just a dream. Who wants to work for other people, cleaning their houses, doing laundries, taking of their children and at the end of the day, coming back to their own family and tending her family's need. Hmm...  


Anyway, I give this novel the rating of 10 out of 10  because of its marvelous story and it didn't fail to inflict many emotions from me while reading it. A DEFINITE BUY and as the phrase on the cover of the novel says: IF YOU ONLY READ ONE BOOK, LET THIS BE IT! 


P.S:  I'm so excited to know that a movie based on this novel is due to be play next year! Hurrah!