Book Review: The Help

This was a beautiful story.  Aibileen and Minny are both black, and work as domestic help in Jackson Mississippi in the early 1960s. The stage for this novel is the civil rights movement and while much has changed since slavery much has remained the same in this corner of the United States. Miss Skeeter has just graduated from Ole Miss and returns to Jackson to find her home changed forever. A friendship is formed between these women based on a common enemy and an eventual shared vision of what the future could be. The characters are believable and the author has done a fantastic job of writing in these different voices. I devoured the story and just plain adored these characters. I loved Aibileen for her kindness and caring, Minny for her feistiness and Skeeter for her ability to see beyond herself. Such a lovely and really, important, novel.