Praising The Help

I finally got around to The Help by Kathryn Stockett a book that intrigued me since it's steady rise in popularity since it's early 2009 release.

The Help admitably does have a female leaning with a huge ensemble of female characters in the early 1960s in Jacksonville, Mississippi.

I remember when I was in history classes, and we had a teacher that encouraged us to look at history through a political, economical, and cultural lens. When ever we talked about the culture of a time period the focus would often be on women, when they had been excluded from the conversation on economics and politics.

In that regard, I felt like Stockett created some texture to the history of the civil rights movement by creating a perspective of the white and black women of the South during the time of Martin Luther King Jr., nonviolent protest, and Rosa Parks.

But this book isn't just a historical read through a cultural lens, it's really just an intriguing story that couldn't be told in any other time or setting, and perhaps that's really the magic of this story.

I appreciated the characters, the story telling, and the tone of which The Help is written, and with a film adaptation coming out next year, this seems like the type of book you want to read and not watch. Needless to say, I'm apprehensive about the film adaptation, but this book is a worthy read.