Kathryn Stockett grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, where her novel The Help is set. Like one of its narrators, Miss Skeeter, she was a white child raised by her parents’ black maid. In setting Miss Skeeter’s story, as well as those of Aibleen and Minny down on paper, Stockett has, in every way, written what she knows.
Aibleen is a maid who dedicates her life to raising the children of her employers; loving them as if they were hers and shielding them from their parents’ racism when she can. Minny is usually outspoken, but in danger of being silenced by her struggle to find work. Hilly Holbrook, the villain of the piece, personifies every racist trope and bigoted argument going, but in her mouth they do not seem recycled or laboured, but newly chilling and horrible.
Miss Skeeter writes their stories. Recording, but never appropriating, she collects testimonies and copies typed manuscripts from the domestic help of her town, and collates them into a book that will shake Jackson to its core.
What is wonderful about this book is that it is not simply about black and white women in opposition to one another: there are surprisingly few references to the historical events going on outside the town of Jackson. Instead, these women’s lives weave together to form a story that is about unusual and often awkward friendships, and a tiny revolution in the kitchens and dining rooms of the houses of Mississippi.