The Help

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Description

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.

reader's comments

springrain rated this book

I have it but have not read it yet. As soon as I finish Mr. Pip I will read it. Enjoy your comments very much.

10 days ago...

Debbie Elsbrock Gallagher rated this book

I just started this book... am really enjoying this view of a way of life that growing up in the Northern part of

the country I never really knew much about. I love all of these characters so far......

20 days ago...

The Help
Kathryn Stockett

buy this book

kuchieswife

going to finish reading the help tonight hopefully i only have abput 40 pages to go. then i think i will read katie price's new book.

1 month ago...

The Help
Kathryn Stockett

buy this book

weemags

Hi folks back now from holiday. Read The Help whilst away and enjoyed the beginning and loved the end but found the middle 150 pages slow and hard going.Got quite annoyed at that point but persevered and am really glad I did. Good debut novel which enlightened me about a way of life I had no experience of.

2 users like this

kuchieswife commented:

i'm in the middle of reading this just now and i'm really enjoying it.

1 month ago...

The Help
Kathryn Stockett

buy this book

kuchieswife

been reading the help now for the pass few days, very slowly, not because of the story just because i dont have the time, i wish i had more time to read, anyway i was just wondering if anyone else had any more hobbies then reading, i know this is a place for reading and talking about books but i just thought i would ask anyway, i do cross stitch, my main reason why i dont have enough time to read,

kuchieswife commented:

yeah the help is really good, wish i could sit down one day and get it finished but i'm so busy just now, i really love films too and do some writing mostly letters tho.

1 month ago...

Sharon Strutt commented:

I have loads of hobbies.Reading is what I do in the darker evenings usually when the light is not so good. My main method of reading is during the adverts on TV or when I'm watching reruns, sport etc, all the things where I like the background sound but I have one of those brains that can concentrate better with another noise!

Sharon Strutt

1 month ago...

View 4 comments

The Help
Kathryn Stockett

buy this book

Jacqui McQuarrie

Read 'The Help' whilst on holiday.......brilliant book. Love a book that can educate and entertain at the same time an absolute must read!

1 month ago...

The Help
Kathryn Stockett

buy this book

weemags

The Book Club is back on More4 and channel 4 with summer read reviews. Started today with The Help which sounds pretty good. I know a lot of people on here have already read this but there was a chat from the author which helped put the book more on my book radar.

harryknuckles commented:

I thought the writer put herself across really well.

1 month ago...

kuchieswife commented:

i have brought this book but havent read it yet, trying to read the books that i've had for over a year first, relly mst get on with reading or stop buying no books, i better get on with reading then lol

1 month ago...

View 10 comments

LaurenBDavis rated this book

I'm torn on this book, because, on one hand, I actually enjoyed it more than I thought I would; it's an entertaining, often humorous read, and the pacing is terrific. On the other hand, I couldn't help but think Kathryn Stockett missed the point of her own book.

The book is set in the early 1960s, and told from the POV of three women, Skeeter, a young white woman writing a book called "The Help" about the lives of African American domestics; and Aibileen and Minny, two of those aforementioned domestics.

I don't have a problem with a white woman writing in the voice of a black woman. As a woman writer I've written in the voices of men, and people of other races. I believe a writer can pull it off if she does it well, with compassion and knowledge. I did wince occasionally when the African American characters talked in thick "Lawd-ain't-it-sure-enough-hot" dialect, but overlooked it since it didn't rely on the dread phonetic spelling, and may be the author's recollection of the period.

What's more problematic for me is the question at the heart of this novel, which I perceived this way: is Skeeter, or is she not, exploiting the very women she enlists to help her write this book? Stockett doesn't completely ignore the issue, but she gives it very short shrift indeed. A young maid, Gretchen, does confront Skeeter by calling her "Another white lady trying to make a dollar off of colored people." But the matter is quickly dropped when Aibileen says that no, she's not. Skeeter becomes less of a writer than a typist as the maids tell their own stories, publishes the book anonymously in order to protect the maids, shares the profits...and in the end the book's publication is the impetus for transformation in the lives of all three women.

Still, it feels very much like Skeeter's book. Her POV is the most nuanced, and the most similar to the author's own life. (They both grew up in Jackson, Mississippi, and both go off to NYC to become writers.) The scenes with Aibeleen and the little girl she cares for are the most poignant, which I suspect also reflects the author's experience. Fair enough. And yet, I can't help but feel there is some depth missing here. Why was I made a little uncomfortable, for example, when the maids continued to refer to the white women who treated them like garbage -- forcing them to wash their hands in bleach, use separate toilets, fire them at will, even have them imprisoned -- as Miss Hilly or Miss Elizabeth?

The characters are likable, the plot entertaining and the author's afterward shows her intentions are clearly in the right place. I am a white Canadian woman who grew up in the sixties. Thus, I can't say how accurate this portrayal of black women's lives in 1960 in Mississippi is. Still, it feels a little too sweet somehow. Yes, a young man is blinded for accidentally using the wrong restroom, and there is anxiety among the woman that they may be targeted for similar violence if their identities are revealed, but the overall tone is perhaps a little too sweet, even with the shadow of fear Stockett often refers to. As I read, I couldn't help but wonder how the tone might have changed if it were written by someone on the other side of the paycheck. I found myself curious about how a co-authored book might have turned out. Of course, perhaps those are not questions I have a right to ask. An author's vision is what it is, and I applaud Stockett for exploring her feelings toward her upbringing. It's a good place to start. I'll be curious to see what she does next.

2 months ago...

Genevieve rated this book

One book that talks about the daily life of colored housekeepers etc. Having been around during those years (1960 s) it shows the back door of someof the ritzy southern familes.

4 months ago...

navarre529 rated this book

One of the best books of read in a long time. I would put in on my top ten list of books. Would make a GREAT book club selection.

7 months ago...

TexasStef commented:

and a good movie

5 months ago...

TexasStef rated this book

I don't give out 4 stars very often but this is an amazing book...well written, good story and characters that you care about. Absolutely loved it and have recommended it to everyone I know who loves books. It will make a good movie, which no doubt will come along in the near future. Can't wait to see who will play Hillie!!

5 months ago...

msdeb1021 rated this book

This book is a favorite. I find myself going back to it time after time. The characters are vivid and more alike than some of them would like. This book takes us into an era, that really wasn't too long ago. A must read.

6 months ago...