I read the book before it was on the best sellers list and was wowed by it, very good writing and, for such a short book, I thought the characters were very well developed. When I heard it was coming out as a movie, I was nervous because so often movies leave out integral parts of the story. I'll go see it, of course, lol.
Growing up on LI, I wasn't exposed to a lot of direct segregation (though it was obviously there, our town was predominantly white at that time), racial tension, or people with 'help', but having studied African America women writers a few years ago I was exposed to A LOT of awesome stories, written by black women about black families. One story we read is called, 'Our Nig' by Harriet E. Wilson, if you're interested in reading something very real. I sobbed through most of it. Of course, it took place just during and after slaves were freed, so it's written from a different perspective in many ways. Anyway, great peek into some very heavy historic times and a real eye opener for some. I remember one woman in my class trying to get our professor to confirm that it was a work of fiction and that things weren't really that way, Lol, stupid woman.