If you are working on your first novel you can’t fail to be impressed at the standard of Kathryn Stockett‘s work and by the dazzling success of her first novel.
‘The Help’ is interesting and inspiring from a number of perspectives. Firstly the ambitious approach of telling the story in three distinctly different voices two of which are black maids. So, not only does she need to create three complex characters but to emulate the distinctive speech and idiom of those characters.
On top of that she has done an amazing job in creating a web of secondary characters all of whom are connected to and driving the main plot. The time and place are also cleverly evoked within the context of the story.
I’m often heard moaning about books being exceptionally long, some of which really need a massive edit! But ‘The Help’ isn’t one of them, I found it so readable that I powered through the 522 pages in about four days – and I’d already seen the movie.
