The Help by Kathryn Stockett

This is a first book and it was written 2009, it is published in 35 countries and is on the bestseller list of the Times; in addition a film is in the works. Certainly a great success for the author who is only 22 years old. Normally I don't pick books like this but I am glad I did. My curiosity arose when I read that the story is set in the rural South of the 1960's in Mississippi describing African American maids working in white households when black women were expected to help raise white babies. The main characters are two maids who have the guts to tell their stories with a good sense of humor, covering the rough truths as part of life, and taking the race differences for granted. The third main character is a white young woman, Skeeter, who is finished with her education and who was also raised by another very similar maid. Skeeter has a very observant eye and wants to become a writer and so she decides to write about the times in Mississippi at that time. It sounds pretty unreal nowadays but the maids worked horrendous hours, got no time off, had to be available at all times, the reimbursement was extremely poor, they even could not use the same toilets as their employers! The "babies" loved their nannies, returned to them rather then to their mothers in times of problems — but once they grew up they became again like their own mothers — distant and removed and selfish.

The time was ripe for a change indeed, the women were suffocating within the lines that defined their town and their times. And it was time to cross these lines. I personally happened not to be in the country at this time, I did not grow up here,  and to be honest, once I arrived I also did not pay too much attention to this situation. Later on I had Elva in my house to help me "raise" Chrissy and Stefan in a very loving way while I was at work. We talked a lot, I tried to help her, she smuggled in her own daughter from Jamaica who lived with us for a while. I remember finding her a place in a Head Start school in Englewood. I would say that sort of a friendship existed between us. Maybe out of necessity, but things were fine then and I hope to have acted vastly different from these white ladies in Mississippi. It truly was a horrible exploitation while everybody looked on and took for granted that these maids were considered not really "human". Very very hard to believe now and shocking! It was good to read this story to reinforce the truth and just to not forget what had happened not so very long ago.