The Help

Each year I pick up  my Entertainment Weekly, look over the top ten books of the year and head to my computer to add them to my library que.

I was number 323 for “The Help” and got it last week.  I picked it up, started reading and two days later, was done.  I could not put that book down.

It seems like a simple story.  Black housemaids working  for white Southern women during the time of the Civil Rights movement in Jackson, Mississippi.  BUT the author peels back layer after layer of the reality of life for everyone during that time.

And as a mother of a black child, I read this book with entirely different eyes.  I saw my Desta as they described their “help” needing a separate bathroom because, “God forbid, the help use the employer’s toilets.”  It made my heart ache to read the reality of life “back then” and unfortunately still continuing today.

This is a fascinating story based on the author’s own life growing up with help.  I highly recommend this book.

Go and put yourself on that library list.  It’s well worth the wait!