Hardcover, 451 pages
English language
Published Jan. 12, 2009 by Amy Einhorn Books.
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but …
Three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss. She may have a degree, but it is 1962, Mississippi, and her mother will not be happy till Skeeter has a ring on her finger. Skeeter would normally find solace with her beloved maid Constantine, the woman who raised her, but Constantine has disappeared and no one will tell Skeeter where she has gone.
Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Something has shifted inside her after the loss of her own son, who died while his bosses looked the other way. She is devoted to the little girl she looks after, though she knows both their hearts may be broken.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue, so she's lost yet another job. Minny finally finds a position working for someone too new to town to know her reputation. But her new boss has secrets of her own.
Seemingly as different from one another as can be, these women will nonetheless come together for a clandestine project that will put them all at risk. And why? Because they are suffocating within the lines that define their town and their times. And sometimes lines are made to be crossed.
In pitch-perfect voices, Kathryn Stockett creates three extraordinary women whose determination to start a movement of their own forever changes a town, and the way women, mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends, view one another. A deeply moving novel filled with poignancy, humor, and hope, The Help is a timeless and universal story about the lines we abide by, and the ones we don't. (jacket flap)
Content warning Spoiler ahead
This book is obviously dealing with difficult subject matter very deftly but also manages to be very beautifully atmospheric while talking about pies made out of feces.
What a magnificent novel. I found the writing style, characters, plot, setting, and "human interest" mesmerizing. This may be the best piece of historical fiction I have read this year. Quite simply, this young lady (Kathryn Stockett) CAN WRITE!
This was a hard book for me to read, but I did love it.
I. Love. This. Book. When I initially read it I rated it 4 stars, but I am rounding up to 5 this time, because it's just that good. I think it is because I listened to it on audio, and it was excellent with multiple narrators. It brought the story to life in a different way, and I loved it.
Skeeter. Aibileen. Minny. Their world in the tumultuous South in the 1960s is about to be turned upside down. Skeeter is fresh out of college, full of ideas and itching to make her way into adulthood. Aibileen and Minny have been working for the white women of Jackson, Mississippi for their entire lives. As times are changing, so are a few attitudes, including Skeeter's. She's about to turn all of their lives upside down. She's an aspiring writer, you see, and she gets a wild idea to write about the …
I. Love. This. Book. When I initially read it I rated it 4 stars, but I am rounding up to 5 this time, because it's just that good. I think it is because I listened to it on audio, and it was excellent with multiple narrators. It brought the story to life in a different way, and I loved it.
Skeeter. Aibileen. Minny. Their world in the tumultuous South in the 1960s is about to be turned upside down. Skeeter is fresh out of college, full of ideas and itching to make her way into adulthood. Aibileen and Minny have been working for the white women of Jackson, Mississippi for their entire lives. As times are changing, so are a few attitudes, including Skeeter's. She's about to turn all of their lives upside down. She's an aspiring writer, you see, and she gets a wild idea to write about the lives of the black women who are "the help" in her town. Look out, Jackson. Skeeter's coming for you.
Filled with realities of a time I can't even wrap my brain around, the characters really come to life, the storyline is full of humor and drama (just like real life) and you will find yourself both glad you don't live in Jackson and wishing you could have been a part of this time of change. 4.5 stars that I'm rounding up to 5 because the audio is so amazing. Please read this book.
The Help is extremely touching and entertaining; the narrating characters are easy to love and there are plenty of reasonable twists. But a lot of "surprises" can be seen coming ahead, and plus it's all just a little too "pat." I also didn't love the way they ended with the situation they'd put the final narrator in. Worth reading but not as amazing an experience as all the buzz would suggest.
What ages would I recommend it too? – Eighteen and up.
Length? – At an hour a day, about two weeks.
Characters? – Memorable, several characters.
Setting? – Historical fiction.
Written approximately? – 2009.
Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Yes. This is a controversial story for many reasons. A few comments made int he book , about not wanting black people to be able to live, or shop in white neighborhoods made no sense. The characters spent most of their waking hours there, cooking, cleaning, and working in the stores. So, in reality, they lived there, and slept elsewhere. If people were so afraid of them, and their germs, why did they insist they cook, clean, and wipe their babies bottoms? The whole idea seems illogical. Fear would keep them from being there in the first place. There was also one comment about who the …
What ages would I recommend it too? – Eighteen and up.
Length? – At an hour a day, about two weeks.
Characters? – Memorable, several characters.
Setting? – Historical fiction.
Written approximately? – 2009.
Does the story leave questions in the readers mind? – Yes. This is a controversial story for many reasons. A few comments made int he book , about not wanting black people to be able to live, or shop in white neighborhoods made no sense. The characters spent most of their waking hours there, cooking, cleaning, and working in the stores. So, in reality, they lived there, and slept elsewhere. If people were so afraid of them, and their germs, why did they insist they cook, clean, and wipe their babies bottoms? The whole idea seems illogical. Fear would keep them from being there in the first place. There was also one comment about who the naked stalker was. It was not followed up on.
Any issues the author (or a more recent publisher) should cover? No.
Short storyline: The story begins with Aibileen, and continues through Minny, and Skeeter. They choose to write a book exposing some of the truths they see in the relationships between the black and white south. In many ways. In the process, they present some of the good examples, as well as many of the painful examples of what went on.
Notes for the reader:
This book was written in dialect. Mostly well done. However, it quadruples the amount of time it takes to read the book.
Please do not look to this book as an example of spelling or proper sentence construction.
If you want to use dialect in your writing, this writer does it well, just way too often.
Some of the sentences are so turned around, the reader isn't sure if the double negative is meant to be a negative statement, or a positive statement.
It is a good example though, of how complex, and interrelated, human relationships were at that time. How people could turn a blind eye to what was in front of them, and be so double sided, and not realize it.
Love, love, loved it.
I was kind of torn by this book. I had low expectations from the beginning -- I was discomfited by the dialect, my northern-identity politicking-liberal arts sensitivities were a little appalled at a white woman writing this book and Skeeter read like an obvious self-insertion character.
That being said, I warmed up quickly. Stockett has clearly done a lot of research, in addition to having grown up in Mississippi with a maid. She is honest, at time brutally so, without taking a clear side. She depicts white people who do terrible things while being well-meaning, white people who have a lot of ingrained racism and are striving to be better and those who aren't. She has white characters who have grown up in poorer circumstances and are trying to fit in. She has African-American characters who pander to their white employers and those who hold their ground and those who …
I was kind of torn by this book. I had low expectations from the beginning -- I was discomfited by the dialect, my northern-identity politicking-liberal arts sensitivities were a little appalled at a white woman writing this book and Skeeter read like an obvious self-insertion character.
That being said, I warmed up quickly. Stockett has clearly done a lot of research, in addition to having grown up in Mississippi with a maid. She is honest, at time brutally so, without taking a clear side. She depicts white people who do terrible things while being well-meaning, white people who have a lot of ingrained racism and are striving to be better and those who aren't. She has white characters who have grown up in poorer circumstances and are trying to fit in. She has African-American characters who pander to their white employers and those who hold their ground and those who have their own ingrained notions. My only complaint from a character development stand point is the completely villainous portrayal of Hilly -- she's easy to hate in a novel that's supposed to be about realistic people in a toxic setting.
This book is very well written. The story was fascinating and each of the three main characters was given a unique voice.
I experienced many emotions while in this book--at times I was touched, at times I would catch myself chuckling out loud, at times cheering under my breath. Most importantly, I could hardly wait to find out what happened next.
I picked up this book fairly randomly from the bestseller shelf, but after reading a couple of chapters I was hooked. Not having grown up in the south -- or even in the States -- the topic of slavery and emancipation in America is both interesting and completely alien to me. The book is beautifully written from the points of view of three women (two black, one white) and draws a vivid (and eye-opening) picture of life in the south as it was in the 1960s. Apart from the historical interest, it's a wonderful and well-told story with rich, realistic characters. I found it very hard to put down, and finished it in three sittings, abandoning the other books I'm in the middle of. I'd certainly recommend this book to anyone.
About midway through this book I could hardly put it down. This author is one who has that knack of drawing you into the story and leaving you hanging at the end of a chapter which wants you to read the next and then the next and so on:-) While this book is set in the South during the 60's I think it will appeal to anyone who has ever been caught in some kind of social society struggle. When I got close to the end I couldn't wait to see who was going to survive, who wouldn't be affected and which righteous snobs were going to fall:-) This is one book I'm glad I went ahead and purchased and didn't wait to try and get it at the library.
