Having just closed the final page of this book, I am tempted to simply say "Buy this book, you won't be sorry". So many of the beautifully descriptive passages are still resonating in my heart - none more so than Elina's fight to stay with Theo towards the end. A wonderful story from a masterful writer, and characters I will long remember.

I slowed down reading The Help halfway through so the characters in this exceptional first novel would stay with me longer. The author includes a quote from Howell Raines's article "Grady's Gift" I want to highlight here in the hopes it entices more people to BUY THIS BOOK:
"There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism." Kathryn Stockett delivers the world of the South in the 60's with unerring true voice. I am glad beyond measure she wrote this book!