I don't believe I ever read 'The Help' but it was such a huge bestseller that I feel I know it through osmosis. And of course there was the film too, though I don't think I ever saw that either. 

This is Kathleen Stockett's second novel and no wonder it's taken her 17 years to produce because it's more than 600 pages long. But I read it in just a few days. It's very readable!

Eleven-year-old Meg is forced to live in an orphanage in Oxford, Mississippi when her mother disappears on Christmas Eve. There, Meg is quickly identified as one of the 'unadoptable' girls and is picked on by the manager of the facility, and treated harshly.

Meanwhile new in town is Birdie, a young woman who is visiting her newly-married sister to plead that she might share some of her new family's wealth with their mother back home who has fell on hard times.

Birdie goes to help at the orphanage and befriends Meg, urging her to seek out an adoptive family rather than hold onto the hope her mother will return for her.

And the Depression deepens. Birdie comes to realise her sister's charmed life isn't all it seems. And then she meets Charlie, a woman who has experienced loss and hardship and who is determined to do all she can to better herself and find a new way forward. Together they realise they can solve all their problems.

In bringing together a band of women, they expose the hypocrisy of the town. Though morally compromised, they find a way to overcome the exploitation and manipulation of men, and the vindictiveness of some of the other women, too. Will they be able to achieve their ends?

It's a great book with charm and humour, warmth and hope. The sense of jeopardy isn't far away, but the resilience and resourcefulness of these women means that a happy ending is just within sight. Very enjoyable.