Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1081-1085 of 1164
 This is the best book I have read in a long time. March 16, 2009
Kate (montclair, nj)
I read a lot. I generally enjoy what I read, but it has been a long time since I have cried from a fictional tale. I fell in love with the characters. This was truly well done.
A Great Story March 16, 2009
Elizabeth Madison (Clarksburg WV)
I really enjoyed reading "The Help." The story moves back and forth between the 3 central characters and is so well written, I couldn't wait until the character's chapter came up again to find out what happened to them. It is a book about friendship, loyalty, heartless discrimination, and determination and three strong women all with their own story to tell. It is written during the civil rights era and gives great insight into a subject most of us did not think about ~~~ what was it like from "The Help's" point of view. I loved it !
An excellent novel of the Gothic South March 15, 2009
Kirstjen B. Lorenz (Chicago IL USA)
This book is about Eugenia, a young white woman from Mississippi who was raised by a black woman who worked for the family. She returns from college, looking forward to seeing Constantine, only to find out she left the family's employment a couple of weeks earlier. Nobody will tell her where she has gone or why. When she gets a job as an advice columnist for the local newspaper, answering questions about household maintenance, she turns to Aibilene, the domestic servant of her childhood friend, since no white woman in her Junior League knows anything about the nuts & bolts of running the home. Aibilene also knows what happened with Constantine, but because of the boundaries between blacks & whites, hesitates to share the story with Eugenia.
She begins interviewing & writing the stories of Aibilene & other domestic workers against the backdrop of Martin Luther King, KKK lynchings, and sit-ins at lunch counters. While reading, you can hear the lilt of the deep south and smell the chicken frying.
This is a wonderful story! I will be recommending this book to my friends & I think it will be one of the books we talk about quite a bit.
Fantastic And A Must Read March 15, 2009
Mr. August (Highland Park, IL)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I remember traveling in the South as a small child and stopping at parks and recreation areas. As a very young, white girl (Yankee), I had not yet been exposed to overt racism. At this one park, I started walking up to a water fountain and bent down to take a drink when I heard a voice, "Don't you be doin that." I looked up into the face of a beautiful black woman and then looked up at the sign above which said "colored water fountain." I really didn't get it, I could read but I didn't get it so I drank from the fountain. Everyone was quiet around me and I ran back to my father who tried to explain to me about segregation. I didn't really understand it but as the years went by and I made more trips to the South and grew up in Chicago, I began to observe the stark reality of our racism.
This book makes it all clear and vibrant, the love, the hate and most of all, the suppressed anger of a culture and a race. I did hear "mothers" speak about separate washrooms and talk to the their "help" with a vicious superiority. The characters came alive in this novel and the stories about these women and their families are a realistic view of how it was and maybe, how it still is many areas.
I believe Stockett did an outstanding job of capturing the essence of her black and white characters, especially Minny and Aibileen. What mother could not feel Aibileen's mourning for her son's death and all her hopes shattered. Skeeter, who triumphed, despite all odds when telling the stories of The Help, shatters the hypocrisy of the white bosses. (Don't we recently remember the great segregationist Strom Thurmond who had fathered a black child)?
Southern writers are my favorite and Stockett now becomes close to number one on my list. She crafted an original, poignant heartbreaking story that is all too real. Stockett never sidesteps cruelty or ignorance.
My Co-worker suggested this book March 15, 2009
B. Mcgruder (Chicago)
My co-worker and I were the first to own the kindle on our floor. We devoured The Help, she warns me not to read to quickly and slow down. Impossible! I thought it was a great read. But because of my African American bookseller days I also had my thinking cap on. How were blacks going to receive this book? I read one of the reviews placed here. I figured as much. Please know I have not forgotten our painful past, but I will no longer be an island. Stockett let the over all story-teller whisper in her ears. I enjoyed the Help. Best wishes to you and I can't wait until it hits the screen or a play.
Showing reviews 1081-1085 of 1164
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