From the Bookshelf of Ms. Reviews & Bookmarks…

The Help

Kathryn Stockett

Why we're reading this: THE ROAD MORE TRAVELED
Erin Aubry Kaplan

Review of The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
Amy Einhorn Books

In her tale …more
[close] THE ROAD MORE TRAVELED
Erin Aubry Kaplan

Review of The Help
By Kathryn Stockett
Amy Einhorn Books

In her tale of an aspiring white writer in 1960s Mississippi who decides to secretly compile the untold stories of black domestic workers, Kathryn Stockett attempts to work out her own complicated feelings about race relations in her native South. She throws herself into the attempt with gusto and gravitas, a risk that pays off to a point: The Help is buoyant in its most sober moments, occasionally insightful. Skeeter Phelan is a misfit, a 24-year-old college grad growing uneasy with the social hierarchies of home; the two black women who risk their lives and livelihoods to help collect the interviews she seeks, Aibileen and Minny, are sympathetically if somewhat predictably drawn. Yet the buoyancy often undermines the book’s more serious intentions; ultimately, The Help can’t decide if it’s modern Faulkner or pop lit with some racial lessons thrown in for fiber.

It’s not that Stockett softens the truth. In her portrait of Jackson, Miss., whites are the clear oppressors, and blacks have no choice but to submit. One task Stockett sets for herself is to show that affection between maids and the white children they help raise can grow in the dry cracks of such a gross power imbalance. But those bonds are modest compared to the force of the oppression. For that reason, restive Minny emerges as the
novel’s most compelling character. She trusts no one white and only admits to a fleeting pity for her softhearted but softheaded “white lady” employer. Minny won’t cross the color line; there’s far too much water under the bridge for that. She can also be funny. Stockett’s keen sense of the absurd, though often tipping into melodrama, is refreshing in an account of Southern racial dynamics—a topic not known for its humor. Other characters feel stock. Aibileen is a model of quiet suffering, while Skeeter, though likable, is too much the bewildered belle— surprised to discover her lifelong friend Hilly Holbrook is a segregationist! Ironically, the white characters have the least dimension, probably because Stockett is so intent on doing justice to the blacks she was never encouraged to know while growing up. Still, it’s disappointing that the white socialite Hilly winds up as the wicked witch of the South, bent on repression and revenge. Whites need to live in the novel too, or the South
feels like a straw man that honorable black maids knock over just by showing up. The heavy half of the Southern power imbalance is assumed here, but not explored. It’s too bad, because hysterical Hilly is simply not a worthy enemy.

And then there’s the matter of a white author writing black voices. As an African American, I accept black idioms as an aesthetic choice, but they nonetheless grated. Why must blacks speak dialect to be authentic? Why are Stockett’s white characters free of the linguistic quirks that white Southerners certainly have? There’s also the narrative rut of downtrodden but world-wise blacks showing white people their own souls, leading them out of a spiritual wilderness to their better selves. The Help has much more on its mind than that, but it doesn’t avoid going down a road too well traveled.

---
ERIN AUBRY KAPLAN is a freelance writer and a contributing editor to theLos Angeles Times.

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

May 31, 2010 Marie rated it liked it

Shelves: women, fiction, southern

I will not lie: I could not put this book down. I read most of it over a 3-day weekend at the beach, and my poor husband had to do most of the driving because I wanted to finish it. Whatever Stockett's weaknesses as a writer, she crafted a good story. Comparisons to A Catcher in the Rye, however, not only fall flat but are stunning.

Before I dove into this book, I was aware that some African-Americans were critical of it because it was written by a white woman. But I didn't read the criticisms i I will not lie: I could not put this book down. I read most of it over a 3-day weekend at the beach, and my poor husband had to do most of the driving because I wanted to finish it. Whatever Stockett's weaknesses as a writer, she crafted a good story. Comparisons to A Catcher in the Rye, however, not only fall flat but are stunning.

Before I dove into this book, I was aware that some African-Americans were critical of it because it was written by a white woman. But I didn't read the criticisms in depth until I was finished: I wanted to decide for myself. After returning from the beach, I then spent a couple of hours on the internet reading reviews and arguments for or against the book.

The most damning criticism of the book is this: all of the African-American characters speak in a highly awkward and inauthentic dialect (unlike any I have ever read in African-American writing), whereas the white characters speak in something akin to the Queen's English. Hardly even any "yalls" or "ain'ts" riddle their language. Some white reviewers criticized the book because they found it hard to read the dialect: clearly they'd never read books such as Their Eyes Are Watching God. But why, in the deep south, would you have only the blacks speak in dialect? (The author acknowledges that if she had known how widely read the book would be, she would have been much more "careful" with the language she used.)

I must agree with some of the negative reviews that many of the characters are caricatures, as well. Although presumably told from the perspective of Skeeter (a white woman) and two African-American women (Abileen and Minny, both maids), Aibileen is mostly defined only through her relationship to the children she cares for and the son she lost. We find out very little about her upbringing or inner thoughts (unless they are about the white family she works for or her son). Minny is the most colorful character--a feisty, spirited woman who speaks her mind and gets herself into trouble because of it--yet is also an abused woman (this seemed incongruent to me). Then we have the southern white trash woman, good ole' southern boy, the vapid Junior Leaguers, and the villain, who is the most racist of all.

When I watched Katie Couric's interview with the author (http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=6...), I was struck by Stockett's naivete and lack of awareness about her own white privilege. She wrote this book as a kind of homage to her own family's maid, who died when she was 16. Although she did not dedicate the book to this woman, she mentioned her in the acknowledgements. Stockett did very little research before writing the book, and that shows. Clearly, the story is told from her imagination of what the African-American maids might have been thinking or might say, with little regard for whether it is realistic. (Stockett obviously has a great imagination, but she should have done some fact- and reality-checking for authenticity.) When Couric asked her about the dialect being so different for the whites and the blacks, Stockett responds that this is what she remembers from growing up in Mississippi. She appears to have been raised with very high standards in enunciation and speech, although she cannot rid herself of her twang.

Some black reviewers comment that white readers like this book because they want to reminisce about the "good old days" and believe that African-Americans who worked as domestic help had great fondness for their employers. I suspect that some of these people have not read the book. The whites in this book, except for speaking the Queen's English, do not come across positive in any way, with a few exceptions (and even those are flawed). However, the fact that so many reviewers take exception with the way the African-American characters are portrayed gives me pause. Furthermore, I wonder whether some of the things that happened in the plot could have really happened: most notably, the maids trusting this young, naive white woman (Skeeter) with not only their livelihoods, but their very lives? Why would they do that when they had so much to lose?

So in summary: great idea for a book, compelling plot, but awkward attempts to pull it off. I will be thinking about this book for days to come, and that's usually an excellent sign. As one reviewer noted, the best thing to come out of this book is the dialogue it has started. That's a good thing. ...more

19 likes · Like · see review

Jan 13, 2012 Katrina rated it liked it

Shelves: books-i-listened-to

I truly believe some books enter our lives just because we need them. This is one of those books. I had been thinking about reading it for awhile and just got around to reading it. I needed this book right now. Great read, wonderful touching story.

1 like · Like · see review

Jun 07, 2011 Linda rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: roar, bestseller-backlash

The more time passes, the more I dislike this book. I finished it four days ago. If I wait any longer to write the review, I am sure it will drop another star. It was definitely not a terrible *reading experience* - that is to say, it wasn't boring or stupid or really bizarrely constructed or written upside down on every other page or anything. But it was awful on a couple of levels, not the least of which is that I am fairly certain the author did not at ALL learn the lessons she is apparently The more time passes, the more I dislike this book. I finished it four days ago. If I wait any longer to write the review, I am sure it will drop another star. It was definitely not a terrible *reading experience* - that is to say, it wasn't boring or stupid or really bizarrely constructed or written upside down on every other page or anything. But it was awful on a couple of levels, not the least of which is that I am fairly certain the author did not at ALL learn the lessons she is apparently trying to teach the rest of us.

I wanted to know what would happen, and I am not going to write a spoiler review because I am more concerned with telling you to PLEASE DON'T BUY this book. Borrow it from a friend or a library or whatever, but please do not throw any more money to this book.

It is funny, because the first thing to rub me the wrong way was that she had a character in Mississippi in 1963 referring to some long-hair Yankee throwing a peace sign. "No way,"I thought. That is way too early! In her afterword, which one blogger called her Too Little Too Late section, she casually states, "I took liberty with time, like using Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin'' even though it didn't come out until a year or two later." Um - why? You specifically set this novel to swirl around the events of 1962-1963, like Medgar Evers, JFK, MLK, etc. And then you decide to go ahead and switch up history - because - why, again? You're just too good for it? You can't think of a song that was out in 1963? You don't really remember this world you are so haughtily evoking as well as you want us all to believe?

There were other mistakes/willful errors. They weren't the only annoying thing about this book. One annoying thing is the condescending that is inherent in writing this story the way she chose to do. Another is that no one who lives on the colored side of town really seems particularly empowered, ever. They just seem to do well and get patted on the head by the occasional liberal white person. Ms. Stockett was really trying to do something awesome here, but it turns out to be another bestseller that ought to be anything but.

I want someone to write this novel better.
...more

1 like · Like · see review