The Help |  | Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $9.95
as of 11/19/2009 22:09 CST details
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Seller: beezleybooks
Rating:  1140 reviews
Sales Rank: 4
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.4
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.9 x 1.7
ISBN: 0399155341
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780399155345
ASIN: 0399155341
Publication Date: February 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product 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.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 1140
A page-turner that makes me squirm. You must read this! November 19, 2009
A reader (New York, NY)
I loved this book and read it in one sitting. It's one of the most touching and compulsively-readable books I've read in years. Like another reviewer here, I bought it on Kindle, and now I am going to order the physical book to keep on my shelves. I was born around the time the book is set, and I grew up in Europe, so I'm not in a great position to comment on the dialects of the main black characters, but they rang true to me. (If money were infinite, I would also buy the audio version of this book.)
The only weak point I saw was the relationship between Skeeter and her boyfriend. He is not fleshed out at all; he seems to have been added as a character at the last minute. He is a minor character, so this is a minor complaint. I get the point: a man who has just proposed to Skeeter retracts the proposal when she tells him what she had been up to, interviewing the Help. I don't need to be hit on the head to pick up on things.
I worked for three months (an internship) in Jackson in the mid-80s. My employer kindly invited me to be a guest at the country club's Fourth of July barbecue and fireworks deal. At one point, I was in the bathroom fixing my make-up, and a black woman in a maid's outfit walked in and hurried to a stall. The white woman standing beside me fixing her lipstick reeled towards me with the most horrified expression on her face. I guess I blinked, because it took me a minute to figure out what on earth was wrong. I assumed I was the reason she was horrified and couldn't imagine what I had done. Then it dawned on me what was going on. I hope my face expressed an equal amount of horror. I was chilled.
This is a really good book by a first-time writer. I hope she is not too intimidated to have a go at a second, on a different topic. She can write.
Oh, BTW, I am probably the 1300th person to point this out, but it's hard to believe that The Washington Post reviewer thinks that MLK was murdered in the early 60s.
Inspiring Well Written Book November 19, 2009
B. Atwood (Ojai, CA)
I was completely engaged with this wonderful book that captured the life of the white and black women. it is hard for me to find time to read, however after starting this book, I could not put it down. Easy reader, well written and would recommend it to my mother!
A great book November 19, 2009
O. R. Gil (Mexico)
I'm in the middle of the book and I can tell you that I don't want finish the story..... It's very touching and make me be sleepless since five days ago...
We should be so brave! November 19, 2009
sqbb (Rockville, Virginia USA)
Women who worked for change while continuing to operate within the "system." They demonstrated the strength, risk-taking, and perseverance that is lacking in our younger generations. I found this book both inspirational and heartwarming.
Wonderful Book! November 18, 2009
Pamela Roberson (New Haven, CT)
I absolutely loved this book! I was a child in rural NC in the late 60's early 70's, and I do remember separate schools and places that were designated that only "white people" or "black people" went to. I think Kathryn Stockett captured that time period perfectly. I loved most of the characters but I do think that Celia's character should have been given a more time towards the end of the book.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1140
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