"You won't be able to put this book down." I heard this statement from many friends and patrons when they were recommending Kathryn Stockett's The Help. Their accolades set my expectations high and created great anticipation. It did not take long for my expectations to plummet, the anticipation to dissipate, and for me to put the book down.
Set in the early years of the Civil Rights Movement, this novel explores the complex relationships between black domestics and their white employers. The story unfolds through the voices of Aibileen, a sweet silent maid who loves caring for white babies until they grow-up to be just like their parents; Minny, a sassy, hefty black maid with a drunken, abusive husband; and, Skeeter, a white, upper-class recent graduate of Ole Miss who wants to change the world with her writing.
It is the stereotypical rendering of the three stock characters as well as inaccurate dialects, a multitude of historical errors and meandering subplots that give this book a false sense of gravitas. Despite its good authorial intentions, The Help is just a well-meaning, pseudo-political fluff piece that is a quick, easy read and a perfect candidate to be a best seller. It is a book with socio-political commentary that doesn’t require too much investment or effort on the reader’s part. Reading this book is like throwing money in collection plate during mass; you know it supports a good cause but you are just relieved it doesn’t require too much work on your part.
From the start, Stockett sucked me into this book with her sympathetic portrayal of Aibileen, a black maid who has raised 17 white children and is mostly seen taking care of the feisty Mae Mobley. Stockett goes out of her way to draw strong dichotomies between Aibileen, the sweet nurturing nanny who is protective of the baby and Mae Mobley’s white mother whose emotions towards her daughter range from indifferent to neglectful to hostile. Stockett sends her message: Black nannies raise white babies better than their white mamas. She repeats this idea consistently throughout the book by having just about every white character fondly recall their black nanny. But when it comes down it, Aibileen is just the stereotypical good, loyal maid who blindly obeys white authority.
Similarly, Minny is the stereotypical “Mammy” in every way from her short, rotund figure to her sassy mouth to her amazing cooking skills. It seems like Stockett watched Gone with the Wind a bunch times as inspiration to create Minny. The smart-mouth maid only becomes a redeemable character when her storyline is linked to Miss Celia, the poor white girl who like the black maids is discriminated against by the southern high society ladies. But although there are some tear-jerking scenes between Celia and Minny, there is not enough substance to elevate these characters beyond the caricatures of the white trash matron and the Mammy.
Then, there is the third and most despicable main character, Skeeter. Technically, she is the heroine of book; the white woman who is going to help the condition of black domestics by writing about their lives and their relationships with their white employers. I am trying to not be offended that more than one person has told me Skeeter reminds them of me. I guess at twenty-three I too would have put lives at risk to get a book deal and a great job at a magazine in New York. Skeeter is completely selfish and reckless with the lives of her sources, who could have been severely punished under the Jim Crow laws for speaking out negatively against their white employers. Skeeter’s only intention with writing the book is to get the job that she wanted. She exploited and used black women to achieve her goals, which completely undermines the point of her book. The same implication can also be applied to Stockett and The Help. She takes on a somewhat noble pursuit but mostly just creates a watercooler topic that would appeal to book clubs. Sadly, she achieved her goal with this book. The marketing for this book is geared towards book clubs and general readers that propel books to the New York Times Best Seller List.
This book has all trappings of a book club sensation/Walmart end-cap. I am so done being trapped and tricked by lure of good reviews by general readers. I am officially done with the New York Times Best Sellers unless the books have also won the National Book Award, the Pulitzer, or the Mann Booker Prize. Life is too short for substandard popular books. I would have been better off spending my time reading To Kill a Mocking Bird. (No offense to my friends who like this book, but I found this work to be absolutely unpalatable.) It is weak on substance and downright pejorative. A close reading of this book reveals it to be highly racist and formulaic. All the black women talk in a Southern dialect and the white southern women all speak like the Queen of England. Any awareness that Stockett was trying to create is completely eroded by her caricatures, inconsistent language usage, improbable plot twists and racist stereotyping. The Help does not measure up to the hype in any way. Don’t waste your time or money.
