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|  | Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.59
as of 9/7/2010 15:09 CDT details
You Save: $12.36 (50%)
Seller: cseereader
Rating:  2529 reviews
Sales Rank: 13
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language), English (Published)
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4
ISBN: 0399155341
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780399155345
ASIN: 0399155341
Publication Date: February 10, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: BRAND NEW FULL SIZE RETAIL EDITION - NOT A BOOK CLUB EDITION - BOOKSTORE QUALITY - EXCELLENT BUY!!!
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 2371-2375 of 2529
 The bar is set really high for my next book... April 10, 2009
J. Fabbri (Bainbridge Island, WA United States)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
What a debut for Kathryn Stockett! I listened to the audio version (18 hours! which I would highly recommend) and was sad when it was over. The story unfolds with humor and grace. The perfect book for a book group or a summer get-away.
Now the hard part, finding my next book!
The Help April 10, 2009
Delores Jackson
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Kathryn Stockett has written a wonderful book populated with women I "know". I lived in Birmingham, AL, for over thirty years and met many woman who had been raised in the 50s and 60s and had not shed that culture - not out of meaness, but ignorance. I started the book and could barely put it down; it was a quick read for me and I was anxious to see what would happen next. I am always amazed at how strong and brave women can be, and how stupid and complacent women can be. Kathryn Stockett did a terrific job of presenting these complexities within the framwork of a great story.
Excellent portrayal of a delicate subject April 10, 2009
MarvelousMarla (Way down in Dixie)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, is a fictional account of the lives of several Black domestic workers in Jackson, Mississippi during the 60's. I was initially a little put off by the dialogue because the author writes using broken English for the Black women, but after a while I was just so caught up in the stories that I didn't even notice.
This book is written from the perspective of three different women: Aibleen, a middle aged maid who has raised 17 different children in her career and lost her only child after a suspicious accident at his job. Aibleen loves her young charges even when their mothers are harsh; Minny is younger than Aibleen and is known for her fabulous cooking and quick temper. Minny can't keep a job because she is always talking back to her employers and finally has an unthinkable run-in with the town's Junior League President; Miss Skeeter is a recent college graduate who returns home to discover that her own beloved maid has quit or been fired, but no one wants to tell her exactly what happened.
Miss Skeeter is a tall, awkward woman who doesn't quite fit in with the rest of ladies from the League and wants to be a writer. Though Skeeter wants to write, she has no experience and nothing to write about. She sent her resume off to a publisher in New York right before graduation, and an editor responds with a challenge for Skeeter to write about something disturbing. Aibleen, who works for one of Skeeter's friends, mentioned that her dead son had been writing a book about being a Black man in Mississippi, so Skeeter gets the idea to write about Black maids who work for White families. She has to convince the frightened women to share their stories with her which is dangerous because this a time when lynchings and racial violence were prevalent.
This book pulls you in with its shocking stories of life in the deep south during segregation. The domestic workers tended to the family's every need while being treated in some cases like trash. A recurring theme throughout the book is how the domestic worker dotes on the children who in turn grown up to be racist adults who oppress their maids. There are some examples of good relationships with the employer family, but those were not the norm.
The women are initially mistrustful of Skeeter and can't understand why she wants to talk to them, but she eventually wins them over with Aibleen's help and promises to change their names to protect their anonymity. They're all afraid of what will happen when/if the book is published, but so many things are happening during the turbulent 60's that they feel compelled to speak out.
This book feels almost autobiographical because there are many similarities between Skeeter and the author, and some of these stories feel too poignant to have been made up out of thin air. Whatever the case, this book is a window into a time from not that long ago when Blacks and Whites lead very different lives. It's a worthwhile read.
This is a Great Book! April 10, 2009
C. Smith (Ma, USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
In this wonderful book, set in Jackson, Mississippi in the years 1962-1964, we meet three unforgettable women: Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan, a young white woman, who is 22, a budding social activist and writer; Aibileen, a black maid raising her 17th white child; and Minny, Aibileen's best friend, who has just lost another job for speaking out to the white woman she worked for.
Taking turns, each of these women tell their personal stories.
Skeeter has a college degree, but is held back by her mother, who won't be satisfied until her only daughter is married, and by her family's position in the town. Unable to bear the bitchiness of the other young women of Jackson, she determines to go to New York to persue a writing career. Advised by an editor to write about things that "disturb" her, Skeeter makes friends with Aibileen, and through her, Minny, and begins the writing of the book that will change all of their lives.
Aibileen has been a black maid in Jackson for many years, raising 17 white children, yet unable to even use the same bathroom as her white employers. She has experienced many injustices and indignities in her life. She has also known tragedy. Her son, Treelore, was 24 when he died in a work related accident. While loading timbers onto the loading dock at the mill where he worked, he slipped off the dock, falling onto the asphalt. A man driving the tractor to the dock rolled right over him, crushing him to death, while his boss and fellow workers stood by and did nothing. Now, she is devoted to Mae Mobley LeFolt, the small daughter of the white woman she works for, a child that her mother resents and ignores most of the time.
Minny, Aibileen's best friend, is married to an abusive man and has five children. She can cook like no one else, but she is the sassiest maid in Mississippi, and has a real problem saying nothing when she is insulted and abused by the white women she works for. At her last job, after suffering numerous insults and charges of stealing, Minny has taken revenge on the daughter, the Terrible Awful Thing, that she tries to keep secret and that has gotten her fired for the umpteenth time. Now she works for a woman so new in the town that she is ignored by the long time residents and doesn't know about Minny's "secret."
Seemingly as different as can be, and kept apart by the cultural and social boundaries of the town, these three women will come together in secret to create a book that will destroy their lives as they currently exist, and yet will also empower each of them to break the boundaries, give them pride in themselves, and the hope and courage to pursue their dreams.
These characters are so real, their voices so vivid, that they make you feel as if you know them, and can laugh and cry with them. Their life experiences are, by turns, touching, heart-wrenching, and historically accurate. These three strong, courageous, and hopeful women make this a book that you cannot put down and do not want to see end. I truly loved this book, and highly recommend it.
 Needed a little more help ... April 10, 2009
C. Schroeder (Geneva, IL)
42 out of 56 found this review helpful
I thought this novel was "okay" but incredibly overrated. The parallels to Harper Lee and her progeny are very misplaced. This book is by no means a masterpiece ~ just takes on a very important subject. The story/plot is somewhat interesting (African American maids and the white families they work for in burgeoning civil war era Jackson, Mississippi) although it surely could have been edited down quite a bit ~ it dragged in spots. I thought the writing was simply mediocre and a lot of the plot development cliche and formulaic. However, Minny and Aibileen were great ladies, sweet, sassy, sad just made the book move along well. I guess part of this book was that I just did not feel Stockett was the person to tell these stories and maybe that isn't quite fair. I often felt like she was guessing at the maids' feelings, thoughts and ideas about the time, their lives and their employment. It just rang false so often like, c'mon, they had to feel a WHOLE lot more angry than that, surely. It was interesting at the end of the novel (titled "too little, too late") that the author felt this way herself at times. I kept thinking how shallow and goofy it was in spots though, and it took away from really getting into and believing in the story. Lastly, my biggest complaint is that ALL of the white people were cartoon-like buffoons. Either they were so daft as to not see the racism/hatred in front of them, viciously mean/racist, insane or lastly, Miss Skeeter, who clearly is the author as protagonist (and awkard young woman just learning how cretinous her high society "friends" are). But who knows, I did not live in Mississippi in the 60s, and the author did, so perhaps those were the people she knew. Anyway, I did not much care for "The Help" but due to its subject matter, I'm sure it'll be around for a while and likely be made into a film.
Showing reviews 2371-2375 of 2529
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