The Help sat atop the New York Times bestseller list for a full year. Its popularity is due to its richly rendered story and setting, but also because it is daring. Kathryn Stockett, a white southern writer from Jackson, Mississippi, chose to tell the story of black maids in the old South, and to write in old-fashioned dialect. Her decision defied political correctness, but it has paid off. Some bloggers have called the book racist; others call it brave. The Huffington Post explained the success this way: “The Help is about something. That is, something real. Something that matters.”
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