The Help: Impressive debut

I am impressed by Kathryn Stockett's debut novel, The Help. I am reading it and loving it. I am up to page 214.

I love to read the different viewpoints of the three narrators who I now know to be Aibileen and Minny, two household helpers, and Skeeter, a budding white writer. Skeeter wants to write a book about the lives of black household helpers in white households. This is in Mississippi in the 60s, as you can imagine, danger lurks. The gathering of information to write the book has to be kept a secret.

At this point, I am eager to know all of Miss Celia's story from Minny's perspective. Celia is so delicate and does not fit into the community because she would be described as poor white trash. I want to know how she ended up with the handsome well-to-do Johnny. I am eager to read about Constantine, the household helper for Skeeter's family, who was suddenly fired. At this point I am wondering if the big secret is that the biracial Constantine is also Skeeter's sister. Or, could it be that Constantine's daughter is Skeeter's sister? Or, even more shocking, could Skeeter be Constantine's daughter. There has got to be some scandal involved because no one is telling Skeeter the complete truth about Constantine's departure from the household and from the town. Truth-telling, by the way seems to be one of the themes in this story.

I am going to take a chance and highly recommend this book to my blog readers even though I am only half way to the end.