Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1086-1090 of 1154
 Praise for the "The Help" March 10, 2009
Megan Eisenberg (Florida)
I loved this heartwarming story that dives so deep into it's characters I could swear they are people I know.. I loved sitting in the kitchen with these wonderful women, working right along side of them at their jobs all day. I could visualize every one of the houses where they worked and the cozy plain kitchens they went home to at the end of the day.. I worried with them, hoped with them and wished with them. A story about humanity and history and love.
 Capitavating Read March 8, 2009
NuJoi (Chicago, IL United States)
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
Karthryn Stockett has made a bold, brilliant and successful effort with her first novel, The Help. I found the writing amazingly poignant. The author vividly takes you into the lives of a number of characters and their relationships with each other. The plot is smart - you'll find yourself eagerly turning the pages with bated breath to see what the villain does next and to determine what will become of the large social and political risk many of the maids take. You may find yourself questioning some long-held prejudices of your own.
Although the time and the subject matter are heavy, Stockett uses humor and a multiple subplots to keep the book from being a preachy, dry read. My one complaint is the way the maids' dialect is captured - it doesn't ring as rich and true to me as it should.
Will Be a Favorite of Mine for Years to Come March 8, 2009
Eclectic Booklover (New England)
42 out of 45 found this review helpful
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett is a simply amazing debut novel that hooked me from the first chapter. It is sure to be one of my favorites for 2009.
The story takes place in Jackson, Mississippi, in the early 1960s. It is a story about the lives of black maids and the white women who employ them. It is also a story filled with hope, about (3) remarkable women set in difficult times. The voices are perfect pitch and even though the story deals with a serious topic, there is much humor for the reader to enjoy, and lessons to be learned by all.
We meet Eugenia Phelan (AKA ...Skeeter) who just graduated from Ole Miss College. Skeeter is back home living with her parents and she is bored with her friends. Her dream is to become a writer, and to move to New York City, but for now she is stuck in Jackson writing for the Junior League's Newsletter. Her mother, however, has other dreams for Skeeter: to find her a rich husband from a good Southern family. Skeeter is tall, a bit socially awkward, but she is very sensitive. Realizing how badly the black maids "The Help" are being treated by their white employers, she comes up with an idea to interview and write about the black maids in Jackson, and their relationships with their white employers. This is a dangerous project that must be kept secret, but one that has the potential of changing the lives of so many people. To Skeeter it is worth the risk, and it just may be her ticket out of Jackson and off to New York City if she succeeds. Abilene and Minny are the focus of the interviews although many more maids agree to participate.
Abilene is a 50 something black maid. She has endured many hardships including the death of her son in a tragic accident. Despite this she remains kind, sweet and dedicated to raising the children of her employers. Although she endures much discrimination, she tries not to judge people, and to remain loyal and kind to her employer, their family and their friends.
Minny is another black maid who has had many jobs. She is angry and bitter and she finds it hard to keep quiet about some of the discrimination she has seen. Minny cannot seem to follow her mother's advice: (7) rules which she preached to her, and that can pretty much can be summed up by saying "keep your mouth shut when it comes to white folks business".
I don't want to say too much more, but to say that this is one of those books that will make you sad when you have turned the final page. The characters and story will live on in your memory long after you've finished this book. I found myself putting sticky notes throughout so I could reread certain parts.
I found it interesting that this story in part was inspired by the author's own life growing up in Mississippi. Her family had a black maid named Demetrie. The maid died when the author was 16, and she never got to ask her how she felt about being black and working for a white family in Mississippi.
This book is highly recommended.
great March 7, 2009
cbear (Nor Cal, CA USA)
This is the first book I purchased for my Kindle. I made a great choice. The book is a wonderful tale about 3 women 2 black and one white...it tells the trying times these women went through during the division of black & white folks. I could not put it down I smiled .. I was angry I was sad it was emotional.
what a read! March 7, 2009
M. S. Clay (Mississippi USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
In The Help, I felt like I was reliving my Mississippi Delta childhood in the early 1960's, complete with summer visits to relatives in Jackson, MS. Sherwood Forest was brand new, and all the maids -- just about everybody who was white had one -- of the modern suburbs where my cousins lived, and of the older Belhaven neighborhoods, wore white uniforms and white shoes, road the bus, and took care of white children and white houses -- all day, every day. What were their own home lives like? Mostly we did not know or (dagger in the heart) did not really bother to think too much about. With this amazing book, we get a pretty good idea of what their lives actually were like. Political, social, financial, and, let's face it, humanistic inequality was raging all around, but life in most of the white houses went along like all was well and nothing should ever change. I was a 10 year old child in the period this book was written, and many of these historical events actually did happen in Jackson, and around the state of Mississippi (the downtown Woolworth sit-ins, Medger Evers' murder, the integration of the University by James Meredith, to name a few.) Ms. Stockett makes you feel like if it didn't happen to you, it could have happened to you, and that you did actually know people like this. The Help will make you laugh out loud, cry bitter tears, and marvel at how these ladies (the maids, though there are a few commendable "white ladies") keep their wits about them with such dignity and strength -- enough to band together to tell their stories to a misfit 20-something wannabe journalist named Skeeter (she's kind of like Scout Finch all grown up). Ms. Stockett is a wonderful story teller and the story she tells is an important one. My favorite book in a long, long time! I got no sleep for the three nights that I was reading this wonderful book.
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