Books For The Road - The Help: Movie vs Book

It is rare that I see a movie before I read the book but after seeing the movie and hearing the good reviews of the book, I couldn't pass up the chance to enjoy what so many have acclaimed as one of the best reads to come along in a while. They were all right.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett is a fictional story told from the perspective of two African American maids and a young white writer from the South. It takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, during the tumultuous years of the 1960s when the Civil Rights movement was getting underway. It portrays the tensions, the prejudices, the relationships, etc. between the white ladies and their maids with humor and sensitivity, and shows much of the emotional tension that was certainly prevalent then.

The movie and the book are a bit different. The movie's screenwriter, Tate Taylor, did a good job in taking the three parallel stories and melding them into a great story line. While the movie enhances the story with the visual ambiance of the 60s, the book is more character driven and the reader is drawn into the mindsets of the characters typical of the 60s in the south.

What I liked most about having seen the movie first is that the actors' excellent portrayals of the characters enhanced my experience with the reading. For example, having seen on screen how Abileen would lower her eyes in the presence of the white women made it more real as I read the description in the book.

Either way, movie or book, you can't go wrong with The Help. I say do both. It will be much more enriching an experience.