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I absolutely loved this book, simply couldn't put it down. I found the characters utterly believable and the world they inhabited just leapt off the page for me.

There have been criticisms levelled at the author for being white and writing about the world of the black servant but I have to say, at no point did I feel or sense or read any kind of separation between the words on the page and the actuality of what was happening in the book.
Kathryn Stockett's writing style is easy to follow, the words she uses enable the reader to jump right into the world she's describing, to smell the cooking, to hear the children and to see the prejudices as they occur.

Some of the characters appeared to be more one dimensional than the others but, personally, I think that was supposed to be the point. Hilly's character, for example, was blinkered and narrow minded, driven by prejudice and ambition for her husband to make it in the closeted world of state and local politics. Elizabeth was an archetypal aspiring middle class wife of a semi-professional man who sought to be in the upper echelons and to not have to worry about money or mending. Celia was the girl from the wrong side of the tracks who got out and then wasn't sure what to do when she made it.

All of these, I feel, were written to provide more depth to Skeeter's character. She was the protagonist, though many people appear to feel this is Aibileen's book. The reason I say this is that, although the words she was writing belonged to the maids, the journey of the book is that of a relatively naiive rich white girl who starts to have her eyes opened as to the reality of what living in the late 50s/early 60s in the Deep South was like during some of the most turbulent times in race relations and history.

The book's not perfect by a long shot. I would have liked Stuart to have had a backbone but then that would have distracted from the main thrust of the tale I guess as Skeeter wouldn't have learnt that she was never going to be happy staying in Jackson and it would have turned into more of a romantic novel. The fact he was such a wet meant that when she looked at him properly, she rejected the lifestyle that her two main female friends were either living or aspiring to and that took her even further away from them in both emotions and in belief.

I felt she did speak with a believable voice and at no point did I ever feel she was a "white woman trying to speak for a black one".
I have given the book four stars because there were elements I think could have been better but, overall, whatever the author's original intentions, this was at the heart of it, an enjoyable book to read about a subject I have only a smattering of knowledge about.