PositiveThe Washington PostIn a page-turner that brings new resonance to the moral issues involved, [Stockett] spins a story of social awakening as seen from both sides of the American racial divide … Skeeter is not racist, but she is naive and unwittingly patronizing. When her best friend makes a political issue of not allowing the ‘help’ to use the toilets in their employers' houses, she decides to write a book in which the community's maids – their names disguised – talk about their experiences … One of Stockett's accomplishments is reproducing African American vernacular and racy humor without resorting to stilted dialogue. She unsparingly delineates the conditions of black servitude a century after the Civil War.
