“The Help”

Aibileen has raised 17 children, all of whom are not her own. Her best friend, Minny, has been fired on more than one occasion for mouthing off to her employers. Both have hopes and dreams for a better life. Thus begins Kathryn Stockett’s first novel, “The Help,” which features the stories and voices of the women who slave away in the service of Jackson, Mississippi’s oldest and wealthiest families. The New York Times says that Stockett is “interested in the affection and intimacy buried beneath even the most seemingly impersonal household connections.” Nevertheless, the Times continues, the novel offers an “ultimately soft-pedaled version of Southern women’s lives, one in which real danger is usually at a distance.” The novel has been extremely popular; the Washington Post calls it a “page-turner that brings new resonance to the moral issues involved.”