"The 2011 movie, starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, and Octavia Spencer, won Spencer an Oscar and helped the book's fame grow. Tallying up The Help's successes, literary scholar Suzanne Jones posited, in a 2014 special issue on the book in the academic journal Southern Cultures, that it may "someday surpass" another hyperpopular novel by a white Southern female author, Margaret Mitchell's Gone With the Wind, in its total numbers for readership and viewership."
"Although such monocultural status could be seen as a win for any author, The Help also joined Gone With the Wind in a less desirable pantheon: the long list of capital-P Problematic books by white authors about Black life. The story revolves around a "good" white woman, Skeeter (played by Stone in the movie). It's Skeeter's decision to write a book about the experiences of Black domestic workers that propels everything forward, pushing change in Jackson, Mississippi, where they live."
"The book lands Skeeter a job in New York City, and while Skeeter voices moral qualms about asking women with a lot more to lose to tell their stories in order to advance her own career, workers Aibileen (Davis) and Minny (Spencer) reassure her that it's OK-they want to take the risk. As Stockett told Elisabeth Egan in a recent interview with the New York Times, she was "not prepared" for the conversations that followed the publication of her debut novel and the release of the film adaptation."
"All of this intense scrutiny may have had something to do with her inability to publish another book until this week, 17 years after The Help, when her big, baggy follow-up The Calamity Club -another historical fiction about another group of Mississippi women overcoming trouble through the power of sisterhood-hits stores."
The Help, published in 2009, follows 1960s Black domestic workers in Mississippi and a white writer who collects their stories. The novel sold 15 million copies, and the 2011 film adaptation starring Viola Davis, Emma Stone, and Octavia Spencer won an Oscar and increased the book’s fame. A 2014 academic analysis suggested it could someday surpass Gone With the Wind in total readership and viewership. Despite its popularity, it is also grouped among problematic books by white authors about Black life. The plot centers on Skeeter, who writes about the workers’ experiences, leading to change in Jackson, Mississippi, and raising moral questions about career advancement. After intense scrutiny, the author released a follow-up, The Calamity Club, 17 years later.
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