Although it took me a while to get into this book (I found the use of language in the Aibileen and Minny chapters hard to get used to) once i did, I found it incredibly enjoyable. Each character has a strong and important place in the story, and I loved how they showed the contrasts between class, colour and gender of the time. What struck me most about this book was, although Kathryn Stockett states at the end of the book that it is 'almost completely fiction', it it entirley believable. While it is frightening to consider that these things (and much worse) were happening in the United Stated in my parents lifetime, you are drawn into the time and place, and are living each of these woman's struggles, successes and relationships with them.