The Help - Kathryn Stockett

Pages: 552  Published: 2009

This is a big book (over 400 pages) and yet I read it in less than a week. Every chance I got, I would open it up and pick reading where I'd left off. 
I've read a few negative reviews about this book; complaining about the writing style - the fact that the black women's voices were clearly written in grammatically incorrect English, whereas Celia Foote's voice, who is described as having a thick accent, is written in perfect English. I understand that there is some inconsistency there, but I didn't feel bothered by this because my interest in the story was strong enough for me to not focus on this detail.
I also read negative reviews saying that the subject of "The Help" is a serious one and that it should not be dealt with in such an "easy" way. I disagree, there are varying degrees of dealing with a subject. In the book itself, Aibileen broaches the subject of discrimination with Mae Mobley in the most simplified way (Martian Luther King). Yes, it's true, in "The Help", although there is some mention of the risk and danger these womens are running; it does seem far from the reality of the situation at the time. At no point in the book does the reader ever really fear that something terribly bad could happen to one of the main characters. However, sometimes it's nice once in a while to read a book that stays light. Of course, if you're only going to be reading "light" books on "tough" subjects, that's a shame and you're not getting the whole real picture. But this is not my case, and I didn't feel that this book "belittled" the subject either. So the "lightness" of the tome didn't bother me.
Overall, this is a book I would recommend to friends.