Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read.

Start by marking “The Help” as Want to Read:

Other editions

Enlarge cover

Rate this book

Clear rating

1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

Open Preview read excerpt* *Different edition

The Help

by Kathryn Stockett (Goodreads Author)

4.44 of 5 stars 4.44 · rating details · 1,138,869 ratings · 70,809 reviews

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 Co ...more

Hardcover, 451 pages

Published February 10th 2009 by Penguin Group G.P. Putnam's Sons Amy Einhorn Books (first published January 1st 2009)

more details... edit details

Get a copy:

Friend Reviews

To see what your friends thought of this book, please sign up.

Reader Q&A;

To ask other readers questions about The Help, please sign up.

Lists with This Book

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by J.K. Rowling

Best Books Ever

34th out of 34,953 books — 134,008 voters

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Books That Everyone Should Read At Least Once

54th out of 12,655 books — 62,634 voters

More lists with this book...

Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

filter | sort: default (?) | rating details

Oct 21, 2012 Sparrow marked it as abandoned

Recommends it for: read Coming of Age in Mississippi instead, please

Recommended to Sparrow by: Linda Harrison, Gibney

Shelves: reviewed, disturbing, punching-tour

I have this terrible, dreary feeling in my diaphragm area this morning, and I’m not positive what it’s about, but I blame some of it on this book, which I am not going to finish. I have a friend who is mad at me right now for liking stupid stuff, but the thing is that I do like stupid stuff sometimes, and I think it would be really boring to only like smart things. What I don’t like is when smart (or even middle-brained) writers take an important topic and make it petty through guessing about wh ...more

flag 404 likes · like · see review

Jul 28, 2010 Joe rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: gift, mlis-book-club

I read the first paragraph of The Help, absorbing the words, but suddenly being caught off guard by the dialect. I stopped reading.

I shifted the book in my hands, flipping to the author's biography and photograph on the back of the dust jacket.

Staring up at me was this:

[image error]

Oh, sweet Jesus, I thought. An affluent, white Manhattanite. Great. And one who apparently fancies herself a master at Southern Black Vernacular. Even better.

I rolled my eyes and returned to page one, fully prepared ...more

flag 356 likes · like · see review

Jul 28, 2009 Annalisa rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Annalisa by: Jeana Quigley

Shelves: book-club, historical-fiction, voice

Here is an illustrative tale of what it was like to be a black maid during the civil rights movement of the 1960s in racially conflicted Mississippi. There is such deep history in the black/white relationship and this story beautifully shows the complex spectrum, not only the hate, abuse, mistrust, but the love, attachment, dependence.

Stockett includes this quote by Howell Raines in her personal except at the end of the novel: There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that o Here is an illustrative tale of what it was like to be a black maid during the civil rights movement of the 1960s in racially conflicted Mississippi. There is such deep history in the black/white relationship and this story beautifully shows the complex spectrum, not only the hate, abuse, mistrust, but the love, attachment, dependence.

Stockett includes this quote by Howell Raines in her personal except at the end of the novel: There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism. An eloquent way to describe Stockett's intentions for this novel. I know most reviews will probably focus on the racial relationships in the book, but to me the most haunting statement was that when you are paying someone to care for you and their livelihood depends on making you happy, you can't expect an honest relationship.

I did not expect this book to hit so close to home. After all, I did not grow up in the South and completely missed the racial mind shift in the country. But the book isn't just about racism and civil rights. It's about the employer relationship too. And I did grow up in South America with a maid trying to keep herself out of poverty by making our crazy family happy. As much as we loved her, I can see so many of the pitfalls from these complex relationships in my own history. I know our maid was stuck between pleasing my mother and raising us the way she believed appropriate. I know it was physically hard to work from sunup to late everyday and emotionally hard to never relax because she wasn't the decision maker of our home and at any moment she could be reprimanded for making the wrong decision. She had absolutely no power, and yet she was all powerful to shape and mold us.

I needed her, felt bad for how much I imposed upon her, but I never voiced how much I appreciated or loved her. I took her for granted. Even though she was paid to love us, I know she did. We were her children, especially my youngest brothers. And yet when she moved back home, we lost contact. Was it out of laziness of our own narcissistic lives or was the complexity of our relationship so draining she cut the tie? It is my fear that she thinks we did not return her affection and only thought of her as the maid. I often think about her, we all reminisce about her wondering where she is, and more than anything, I just want to know that she is happy and tell her thank you. It is so strange that someone who is such a vital part of your childhood can just vanish out of your life. "They say its like true love, good help. You only get one in a lifetime." I know. Believe me, I know.

The story is strong and real and touched something deep inside me. I could so relate to the motherly love from Constantine to Skeeter, see that pain in the triangle between Aibileen and Mae Mobley and Elizabeth, feel the exasperation of Minny toward Celia, and understand the complexity of the good and bad, the love and hate, the fear and security. Stockett captured all these emotions.

I also loved the writing style. When style compliments plot, I get giddy. I don't always love grammatically incorrect prose or books about an author trying to be published, but here it works because it's honest. The novel is about a white woman secretly compiling true accounts of black maids--and the novel is in essence a white author trying to understand black maids. The styles parallel each other as do the messages. The point of Skeeter's novel is to make people see that people are just people no matter the color of their skin and Stockett's novel beautifully portrays that with both good and bad on both sides. The fictional novel cover is decorated with the white dove of love and understanding. To get us there, Stockett gives us three ordinary birds, a picture of ordinary life asking to be accepted for its honest simplicity.

This book is Stockett's masterpiece, that story in her that was just itching to get out. From the first page, the voice of the characters took vivid form and became real, breathing people. I loved Aibileen, but think I loved Minny's voice more because she is such a strong character. Besides the maids, I loved Hilly as a portrayal of the white Southern belle with the ingrained belief that black people are not as good as whites, verbalized as "separate but equal" so it doesn't sound racist. My favorite scene was when Hilly says they have to be careful of racists because they are out there. She's a bit over the top, but if you've been to the South, not that far of a stretch. I just would have liked to find some redeeming qualities in her from Skeeter's perspective.

While there are some instances where I felt Stockett was squeezing historical facts into the novel, forming the plot around these events instead of letting them play backdrop, and occasionally I could read the modern woman in this tale pushing her message too hard, Stockett's sincerity to understand and appreciate shines through. She lived this book to some extent and the story is a part of her. Because it's important to her it becomes important to me. ...more

flag 318 likes · like · see review

Jul 06, 2011 Caroline rated it 1 of 5 stars

I was uncomfortable with the tone of the book; I felt that the author played to very stereotypical themes, and gave the characters (especially the African American ones) very inappropriate and obvious voices and structure in terms constructing their mental character. I understand that the author wrote much of this as a result of her experiences growing up in the south in the 1960's, and that it may seem authentic to her, and that she was even trying to be respectful of the people and the time; b ...more

flag 295 likes · like · see review

Dec 17, 2011 Julie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2011, usa-historical

I sat down one evening to skim through the first few pages of The Help to determine if I would proceed with a full read. I was immediately hooked and a couple of sessions later I closed the back cover. I didn't have to work hard- this is a compulsively readable novel. That this is such an easy read troubles me. Its subject matter is as heavy as Mississippi in August, but the tone is often as breezy as girls' night out in Venice Beach.

For all the accolades and attention Kathryn Stockett has recei I sat down one evening to skim through the first few pages of The Help to determine if I would proceed with a full read. I was immediately hooked and a couple of sessions later I closed the back cover. I didn't have to work hard- this is a compulsively readable novel. That this is such an easy read troubles me. Its subject matter is as heavy as Mississippi in August, but the tone is often as breezy as girls' night out in Venice Beach.

For all the accolades and attention Kathryn Stockett has received for telling the hidden-in-plain-sight truth of Jim Crow South in the 1960's, I felt cheated by her story-telling. Aibileen and Minny, black women who have spent their lives in service to white families, are portrayed with unsentimental clarity. These women are the real stories, the voices I most wanted to hear. Yet it was as if Stockett didn't trust her ability to carry a full novel in these characters. Instead, she relies on Skeeter - a young white woman who is having a "Eureka" moment of conscience and self-awakening - as the central protagonist. Skeeter is not a compelling narrator and every moment with her was a moment stolen from the characters whose lives should have been the central focus, the eponymous "Help".

In addition, the character of Celia is wasted in a mush of contradictions and implausible behavior. It makes zero sense that a tough-as-nails girl from the hollers couldn't boil water for coffee. Her presence in the plot is inexplicable, as she neither evolves as a character nor moves the story along. Oddly enough, I adored her. I just wish she would have been allowed to grow and participate in the story, instead of remaining its unfunny punchline.

The narrative comes alive in the delicate dance of shame, anger, control and love experienced by so many of the characters, white and black. The real story is rock-solid Aibileen in the Leefolt home as the family cook, maid and child care provider; it is rebel Minny submitting to her abusive husband, determined to keep her family together; it is society-grasping Elizabeth Leefolt, as she feels the desperate tug between convention and her conscience, which struggles to rise from the swamp of racial segregation; it is the deep love between Aibileen and little Mae Mobley Leefolt, contrasted brilliantly with the cold affect Mae Mobley receives from her emotionally stunted mother. These relationships are so compelling, you know that Stockett is writing from her heart, and they are what make this a beautiful read.

The awakening of the women who constitute "The Help" as they tell their stories is also remarkable. But again, the milquetoast and ironically ambitious Skeeter, with her hapless attempts at romance, gets in the way. There is a moment when her motives at gathering and publishing these stories are questioned by an embittered maid, Gretchen, but Stockett drops this in and quickly retreats. It's as if she isn't certain herself who should profit from the telling of these stories, the white woman who can walk away from controversy to a shiny new life in New York City, or the black women who risk everything- their jobs, their homes, their lives- to share the truth.

There is potential for a much more profound and revelatory story from this gifted and passionate writer. It made me long for the heartbreaking honesty and poetry of Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and the novel that changed forever how whites told the story of Jim Crow, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. These novels have withstood the test of history; I don't see The Help holding the same ground. ...more

flag 269 likes · like · see review

Jun 21, 2010 Ellen rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

The Kindle DX I ordered is galloping to the rescue today...

description

AND, for all the book purists (which would include me), this is a need, rather than a want. Post-several eye surgeries, I'm just plain sick of struggling to read the words on a page.

However, despite the visual challenges, I read all 451 pages of The Help yesterday. Clearly, the book held my interest. However, I spent last night pondering why the book wasn't as good as my nonstop reading would indicate.

What was wrong?

Most of all, I thin ...more

flag 223 likes · like · see review

view all 52 comments

Shauna Wade I'm not sure that I agree with you on this one. I do think that many white people hated the way things were but they faced threats to their physical s ...more
Aug 09, 2014 03:18AM

Rhys I just got notice of the above 51st reply to Ellen's critique. Congratultions, Ellen; and congratulations to Miss Kathryn and The Help. Such a robust ...more
updated Aug 09, 2014 10:49PM

Apr 13, 2010 karen rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: it-is-for-class

enthusiasm!!!

this book and i almost never met. and that would have been tragic. the fault is mostly mine - i mean, the book made no secret of its existence - a billion weeks on the best seller list, every third customer asking for it at work, displays and reviews and people on here praising it to the heavens. it practically spread its legs for me, but i just kept walking. i figured it was something for the ladies, like sex and the city, which i don't have to have ever seen an episode of to know
enthusiasm!!!

this book and i almost never met. and that would have been tragic. the fault is mostly mine - i mean, the book made no secret of its existence - a billion weeks on the best seller list, every third customer asking for it at work, displays and reviews and people on here praising it to the heavens. it practically spread its legs for me, but i just kept walking. i figured it was something for the ladies, like sex and the city, which i don't have to have ever seen an episode of to know that it's not something i would enjoy. i figured that this book was on the ladder one rung above chick lit. so i am to blame for my snobbish dismissiveness, but have you seen this cover?? what is with that sickroom color scheme? and i hate those stupid little birds. what is chip kidd so busy doing that he can't just pop over here and lend a hand?? it is not my fault for thinking it was a crappy book when that cover wanted me to think it is a crappy book.

but this book is good. really, really good. again, i thank you, readers' advisory class, for fixing me up with this book. it has been a long time since i have read such a frankly entertaining book. (if a book about the emotionally-charged early days of the civil rights movement can be called entertaining.) this is just an effortlessly told story, split between three different women, whose voices and perspectives never run together - the secondary characters are also completely believable and are all different brands of repellent, with some token sympathetic characters tossed in for the halibut. i don't even know what to say, i just feel all "aw, shucks, i loved this book" about it - there were several times i would catch myself grinning at a turn of phrase or a situation, and every time i would start to doubt myself, that maybe i would like sex and the city. or buffy the vampire slayer or all these things i have formerly judged without having read/seen/eaten. maybe i am like these white women in the book, taking their help for granted and assuming they have nothing to say to each other because of their unwillingness to talk to them and know them as human beings. maybe buffy and i have so much to learn from one another...

then i would snap out of it and remember that my gut opinions are 99.99% foolproof.

so for you other people, who need to be swayed by hype - i give you hype. this book's hype is merited - it would be a perfect book to read this summer when you are melting from the sun and need a good story.. this is a very tender and loving book, about hope and sisterhood and opportunity, but also about beatings and terror and shame.

still hate those birds, though. ...more

flag 184 likes · like · see review

Apr 15, 2011 Maegen rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, disappointments, recommended-to-me

While it was a well-written effort, I didn't find it as breathtaking as the rest of the world. It more or less rubbed me the wrong way. It reads like the musings of a white woman attempting to have an uncomfortable conversation, without really wanting to be uncomfortable. It's incredibly hard to write with integrity about race and be completely honest and vulnerable. The author failed to make me believe she was doing anything beyond a show & tell. And if her intent isn't anything greater, th ...more

flag 129 likes · like · see review

Jun 23, 2011 Jason rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-kindle, 2011, reviewed

“It's true. There are some racists in this town,” Miss Leefolt say.
Miss Hilly nod her head, “Oh, they're out there.”

Law, this book be good! I’m on tell you how good this book be. Everthing ‘bout this book be good, you gone read this book and you gone see what I’s mean. Law!

flag 118 likes · like · see review

Jul 14, 2014 Nancy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audio-books, historical-fiction, made-me-cry, race-relations, favorites, women, library-books, shelf-inflicted

Posted at Shelf Inflicted

One of my co-workers, a guy who isn’t much of a reader, borrowed The Help from the library based on his English professor’s recommendation. The guy just couldn’t stop talking about the story, so I decided to borrow the audio book. It’s not very often I get to discuss books with people in real life and I wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by. Audio books are good for me. I was so engrossed in the story and characters that I drove the speed limit on the highway and
Posted at Shelf Inflicted

One of my co-workers, a guy who isn’t much of a reader, borrowed The Help from the library based on his English professor’s recommendation. The guy just couldn’t stop talking about the story, so I decided to borrow the audio book. It’s not very often I get to discuss books with people in real life and I wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by. Audio books are good for me. I was so engrossed in the story and characters that I drove the speed limit on the highway and took the scenic route while running errands. Sometimes I went out at lunch and needlessly drove in circles, or sat in the parking lot at work, waiting for a good place to stop.

It is 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. Twenty-two year-old Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan has returned home after graduating college to find that Constantine, her family’s maid and the woman who raised her, has mysteriously disappeared. Aibileen is a black maid in her 50’s who works for the Leefolt family and cares deeply for their daughter, Mae Mobley. She is still grieving for her young son, who died in a workplace accident. Minny is Aibileen’s closest friend and a wonderful cook, but her mouth keeps getting her into trouble and no one wants to hire her, until Aibileen helps secure her a position with Celia Foote, a young woman who is new in town and unaware of Minny’s reputation.

The story jumps back and forth between the three characters, all of them providing their version of life in the South, the dinner parties, the fund-raising events, the social and racial boundaries, family relationships, friendships, working relationships, poverty, hardship, violence, and fear. Skeeter’s mother wants her to find a nice man and get married, but she’s more interested in changing the world. Her plans to anonymously compile a candid collection of stories about the maids’ jobs and the people they work for will risk her social standing in town, her friendships, and the lives of the maids who tell their stories.

I loved this story! The characters really came alive for me, and the author did a good job acknowledging actual historical events which lent richness and authenticity to the story. I laughed and cried, felt despair and hope. This is an important story that is a painful reminder of past cruelty and injustice. It shows how far we have progressed and how much more we still have to accomplish.
...more

flag 114 likes · like · see review

Aug 11, 2011 Salome G rated it 1 of 5 stars

The story itself: This could have really used a better editor. I didn't understand why the boyfriend character was even in there--he added nothing to the story. In addition, Skeeter keeps telling us that Hilly and Elizabeth are her friends but that's just it--she tells us. We never see why she would want to be friends with either of them, Hilly especially. Other characters were equally unbelievable. All the maids are good people and so gracious to Miss Skeeter, save one. Reading their interactio ...more

flag 108 likes · like · see review

Apr 25, 2010 Thomas rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: five-stars, adult-fiction, historical-fiction, 2nd-favorites

Originally, I thought this book should have been retitled The Hype. At least that's what I told my friend. I remember thinking something along the lines of, blah, another story about racism in the old southern days? Must be the chick-lit version of To Kill a Mockingbird. Wow. I was so wrong.

The Help details the lives of three women living in Jackson, Mississippi, right when the Civil Rights Movement began. There is Skeeter, a twenty-two-year-old aspiring writer who terribly misses her maid, Cons ...more

flag 68 likes · like · see review

Jun 17, 2009 Lucy rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

Gush, gush, gush, gush, gush! I cannot gush enough about this book.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, follows the lives of three women living in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. Two of the women, Aibilene and Minny are black, hired as help to wealthy, or trying to appear wealthy, white families. Eugenia, or "Skeeter" as she is called, is a white woman recently graduated from Ole Miss University and trying to become a writer. She is what probably most of us are, kindly ignorant of the world around her. Rai Gush, gush, gush, gush, gush! I cannot gush enough about this book.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, follows the lives of three women living in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. Two of the women, Aibilene and Minny are black, hired as help to wealthy, or trying to appear wealthy, white families. Eugenia, or "Skeeter" as she is called, is a white woman recently graduated from Ole Miss University and trying to become a writer. She is what probably most of us are, kindly ignorant of the world around her. Raised on what her mother embarrassingly still refers to as a "plantation" she lived in an environment with all the privilege and prejudice you'd expect from a southern belle. Living at home again, Skeeter doesn't quite fit in anymore among her friends, who are all married with children.

When a feminist editor from New York rejects one of Skeeter's submissions, she includes with that rejection the advice for Skeeter to write about what disturbs her. It is while playing bridge with her friends, and she becomes aware of her friend, Miss Hilly's, crusade for every home to have a separate bathroom installed for "the help", to contain the germs blacks carry that whites are more susceptible to, that Skeeter realizes she has found her subject matter.

Skeeter is the least developed character of the three but she is the means in which this uniquely uplifting story can be told. Without Skeeter, who at 22, finally and lonesomely comes of age, The Help would simply be another shocking look at the racial inequality that existed still so recently in the South. It is Skeeter's character, and her ambition to write a book that matters, that strips Aibilene's and Minny's blatantly mistreated, funny and irresistible characters out of their perfectly pressed maid uniforms and into each of our lives.

I don't want to give away too much about Abilene and Minny, who became women I loved. They mattered to me. Aibilene, especially, is so vividly written, that her voice, her mannerisms... her unguarded moments... took solid form in my imagination. More than anything, I wanted her to thrive. To triumph.

As rich as this book is in both characterization and plot, its real accomplishment is that it encouraged me to examine my own prejudices. Racism has always been a frustrating topic for me to think about, as has sexism. My mind has a hard time wrapping around the idea that there was a time when educated people - enlightened people - sincerely believed that any race or gender was superior to another. It seems our spirits must have always had the capacity for understanding that this could not be so, but The Help showed me how such beliefs are possible.

Stockett, a southern white woman herself, exposes this possibility with an experienced sympathy. Using a variety of characters, she demonstrates how many Southerners in this particular chapter of our nation's history weren't racist because they were mean-spirited or elitists, but because tradition and bogus science had supported their belief. Foolish traditions, yes, but they were able to be easily convinced that a separate toilet was not only desirable but necessary because they lacked scientific understanding about germs and contamination and genetics. They only thing available to counter such painfully offensive actions was personal reflection and, perhaps, their consciences.

More so, and what was really eye opening to me, were the attitudes of "the help", and how their own actions and attitudes were also heavily influenced by tradition and fear - as much so as their white counterparts. Whites, with control and power, dosed out injustice after injustice that was defended by their fear and blacks adjusted to the degradation based on their own learning and fear. Minny was taught by her mother how to behave as a maid in the home of a white woman - what to say and do and how to say and do it. She also experienced first hand the consequences of breaking with that tradition, being fired and blacklisted and unable to provide for her family. The difference between what excuses the fear as loathsome or imaginable was the availability of recourse. Blacks had none. Or very little.

I must believe, as a human being, that there is something inside each of us that witnesses the value of our souls. However, blacks, then, had even less access to understanding and knowledge than their white peers which left them with little other than their own consciences as proof of their worth. How frustrating to be human whose freedom is limited by the understanding of others. It made me wonder which of us are like Miss Skeeter, Miss Hilly, Aibilene or Minny. Are we currently kindly ignorant, arrogantly holding all the answers, quietly giving the best of ourselves with what society allows or protecting our vulnerability with a tough outer shell?

Perhaps, we are all of them, at different times of our lives, progressing at our individual rates of enlightenment and courage. As Skeeter explained, "Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, 'We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought'."

Amen.

Now, go read this book! ...more

flag 66 likes · like · see review

Sep 15, 2008 eb rated it 5 of 5 stars

An engrossing, vivid, funny, and important book about three women living in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. Stockett writes in three first-person voices: 1. a middle-aged black maid who specializes in childcare, 2. a hot-tempered black maid who cares for a once-poor, now-rich white woman, and 3. a white girl who's just graduated from college and is floundering around. The Help is "about" race and feminism, but not in an earnest or heavy-handed way. Story is Stockett's first concern, and Jesus ...more

flag 62 likes · like · see review

David R Hello,
I'm a senior in an AP english class and need to write an essay arguing for or against, any book written in the last 5 years,to be considered a ...more
updated Apr 17, 2009 12:31AM

Mary Anne David,

This is probably too late for your essay.

I grew up in the South of the 1950's. The Help is not just a novel; I feel in my heart that it is histo ...more
Mar 04, 2010 05:25PM

Karen I loved this book for the same reasons and I would find myself holding my breath at times!

Even though my mom did not work, she had three kids aged 1, ...more
Sep 28, 2010 10:29AM

Jan 24, 2011 Tatiana rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned, why-the-hype

I don't think this could be any more obvious, trite and cliche-ridden. The book's only aim is to make white people feel better about themselves. Guess it worked. Hence, its bestseller status.

flag 58 likes · like · see review

Nov 05, 2010 Joanna rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-21st-cent

I've completed 69% of this book on Kindle, and must wait a week to read the rest. Roger is taking my Kindle to Ireland, so I'll be reading a different "real" book this week.
I LOVE this book, with it being one of my favorite book ever. The Help is well written and well researched, giving unique insight into the black maids living and working in the southern US during the early 60's. As a child growing up in Atlanta, Lillie Frazier came to our house three times a week. She loved and nurtured me in ...more

flag 53 likes · like · see review

view all 12 comments

Terri I did not grow up with a life like that, nor was I raised in the south. But one thing it did for me, was open my eyes..I liked this book.
Dec 14, 2011 10:49AM

Wynyard I grew up in the east Texas, which was more like Georgia (where my parents came from) in its pine trees, red dirt, and social attitudes. This was in t I grew up in the east Texas, which was more like Georgia (where my parents came from) in its pine trees, red dirt, and social attitudes. This was in the '40s and '50s. We had 'help', and that's really how these women were referred to. We had a cleaning lady, who let me choose my hair ribbons. Then we had an ironing lady, who sang gospel as she ironed. Then we had Ernestine, who was with us until I was in college. "Miss Teenie" was probably in her late teens when she came to us, too young to be a substitute mother, but young enough to become a friend to visit with after school. She taught me to boogaloo.
No, I never heard of a separate maid's toilet. All our friends had help, and they didn't have separate facilities. Our family was certainly middle class, Mother a school teacher and father a railroad middle executive. I thought the author had mixed up her generations. I was married in the late '50s, and the young couples didn't really have maids. I asked my daughter what she thought about that, and the Junior League and bridge club, etc. I said, surely that was my mother's generation...or maybe a FEW of my old high school friends. She said, Mom, they STILL do have maids and do junior league and bridge! Hmmmm. After all the time I've spent with N.O.W. and pushing the glass ceiling. Not such a brave, new world after all.
'Teenie died about 15 years ago. She had visited us when she came through town twice. I have a photo of her holding my grandson. She raised two other girls after me, and came with the family to see them graduate from college. She had no children of her own. When I visited her after I was married, she was living in a tiny poor house, on a dirt road, underwritten by her 'family' (after us). Wood floors almost scrubbed through. Photos of "her children" on the dresser. She deserved much better. I never thought she'd die, and when I learned she'd been taken by her incessant cigarettes and lung cancer, I cried as much as I did for my mother, though a different kind of grief. There are tears even now.

I wonder what she would have thought of "The Help". I wish she and her church friends had written a book. ...more
Feb 12, 2012 02:38PM

Jan 18, 2009 Suzanne rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: everyone!

This first novel by Kathryn Stockett is amazing. This is one of those few books that grabbed my emotions and interest so deeply that I could not stop thinking about the book when I would set it down to attend to other activities (like eating, sleeping & working!). I was engrossed and couldn't wait to read more, while at the same time savoring every chapter as the story developed.

Stockett makes the characters come to life with her scene and character descriptions; writing in the 'voices' of ...more

flag 52 likes · like · see review

Jan 26, 2010 Maggie Stiefvater rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommends it for: everyone and their mum. and their barbers

Recommended to Maggie by: everyone's mum and their barbers

Shelves: adult, recommended

So, it looks like THE HELP is turning out to be one of those novels that I love despite flaws. Nearly everyone in the world knows what this book is about (as I pen this review, it is at #2 in Amazon sales ranking) but I shall reiterate: it’s the story of three women -- two black, one white -- in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, and how the two black maids work with the one extremely naive white young woman to write a book of their stories as “the help.”

In the spirit of honesty, I should tell you tha So, it looks like THE HELP is turning out to be one of those novels that I love despite flaws. Nearly everyone in the world knows what this book is about (as I pen this review, it is at #2 in Amazon sales ranking) but I shall reiterate: it’s the story of three women -- two black, one white -- in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, and how the two black maids work with the one extremely naive white young woman to write a book of their stories as “the help.”

In the spirit of honesty, I should tell you that I didn’t want to read it. It sounded like it was going to hit the Maggie Trifecta of Doom:

1) Fiction that is Good for You
2) “Women’s Fiction”, now with 60% more tears
3) Mint Julep references*

*I have not been thrilled by a single novel that mentions a mint julep. I’m not sure if this is coincidence.

However, I loved it. Despite the fact that the book is massive -- pick it up next time you go by, it’s a doorstop -- I read it in three evenings. It was engrossing, very well characterized and often funny. Strangely enough, two of those are also part of what I consider its flaws. The characters are so reliably themselves that they are nearly caricatures in some areas. While it meant I could definitely never mistake one woman’s voice for another, it also gave it a bit of a Hollywood/ sitcom feel; they were types instead of people. And the funny -- well, race relations in ‘60s Mississippi is not exactly all fun and mint juleps, as everyone knows. But this book is upbeat, uplifting, and ultimately made a bit fluffy by all its humor and optimism. Again, I could imagine this as a Hollywood screenplay in a New York minute.

Still, don’t get me wrong -- it’s wonderfully written and easy to love and very easy to recommend. I also think it would be a killer book club book, because there is a lot to talk about in here, and I don’t just mean the Trifecta of Doom bits. I think that everyone who reads it will at least like it, even if it will not become their absolute favorite in the world. And we need books like that. So go out and read it.

***wondering why all my reviews are five stars? Because I'm only reviewing my favorite books -- not every book I read. Consider a novel's presence on my Goodreads bookshelf as a hearty endorsement. I can't believe I just said "hearty." It sounds like a stew.*** ...more

flag 49 likes · like · see review

Sep 17, 2011 Eric_W rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, current-affairs

This book has a kazillion ratings and reviews so I doubt there is little I can add. I found the story and dialog to be quite believable. As someone who came of age during the sixties I well remember the battles, both physical and verbal, between the “separate-but-equal” crowd and those pushing hard for civil rights. We lived in a suburb of Philadelphia and my mother had a lady come in once a week to do the cleaning. I happened to be home from school one day - it must have been a holiday or somet This book has a kazillion ratings and reviews so I doubt there is little I can add. I found the story and dialog to be quite believable. As someone who came of age during the sixties I well remember the battles, both physical and verbal, between the “separate-but-equal” crowd and those pushing hard for civil rights. We lived in a suburb of Philadelphia and my mother had a lady come in once a week to do the cleaning. I happened to be home from school one day - it must have been a holiday or something - and at lunch I took my bowl of soup and crackers into the dining room with my book (reading, not TV, is the foundation of anti-social behavior) while my mother and the cleaning lady (it still is irksome to use that term) ate in the kitchen. My mother later told me the lady said it was the first time she had ever sat at the same table to eat something with a white woman. (My mother had issues of her own, but they had more to do with educational elitism than race per se, witness her early antipathy to our adoption of several mixed-race children whom she perceived to be a less than stellar intellect. This was in the early seventies when cross-racial adoption was still a rarity.)

Much as I despise religion, I have to give it credit for providing the impetus (at least in the north, but also in some churches in the south) for the civil rights movement. It was distinctly a religious crusade, fostered by the National of Islam under Elijah Mohammed (the so-called Black Muslims,) some Catholic priests like the Berrigans (much to the dismay of their bishops) and many Protestant ministers. Bombings of churches could only lend more credibility to the marchers.

I was attending a Quaker school and remember hearing stories about one family in the Meeting that adamantly refused to permit letting blacks into the Meeting. This was in the fifties. Since Quakers have to do everything by consensus, they could essential block black membership. The issue remained unresolved until the family saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall and moved away.

I read many of the reviews and comments on Amazon and was struck by a couple who thought the book demeaned black maids. I found just the contrary, that if any group was degraded, it was the clique of white girls who, with only a few exceptions, didn’t do anything of worth and cared mostly for clothes, boyfriends, and whether a black ass had sat on their white toilet seat. Some African American readers felt the black maids were demeaned by the book. I find many of these comments quite interesting because I don't think the book is about black maids at all. I think it's about a vapid white culture that is concerned with appearances and boys, and make-up and whether their precious behinds will be soiled by sitting on a toilet that might have been used by a black person. For me, the book ridiculed that white culture and showed how one person made an attempt to cross over and understand the other culture's point of view, but it remains the perception of the white culture at the time so by necessity, the view of black dialect and actions must be a flawed one.

I loved the scene where Abilene is trying to potty-train Mae Mobley and is in a quandary because the child needs to see how adults do it, yet Abilene is terrified to use the bathroom in the white house rather than the colored one built for her in the garage. So she shows her the colored one which Mae Mobley Leefolt then wants to use all the time, to her white mother’s horror.

Yes, there are some anachronistic events, yes, the dialect seems forced sometimes. So what. Outstanding book that reveals the tensions of being black and a decadent and dying white culture in the United States during a period of cultural upheaval. ...more

flag 44 likes · like · see review

Nov 22, 2009 Christine E. rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: audiobook

I'm listening to this as an audiobook and I'm guessing I'm about halfway through, but I feel justified in giving it 4 stars. I might add or subtract a star when I'm done listening to it.

I'm glad I'm listening to this one, rather than just reading it, but I will probably buy the book too. It's written in the first-person, alternating among 3 women in early-1960's Mississippi - 2 black maids and one young white woman who has just graduated from college and is seeing the community she grew up in i ...more

flag 44 likes · like · see review

Sep 01, 2014 Cecily rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: american-canadian

This is a powerful story about women's relationships with each other, and how they are affected by race (and class), told from the viewpoints of three women (two black maids and a young white woman). It is set in segregated Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962-64, at the dawn of the civil rights movement, but it's local and domestic, rather than looking at the big picture.

The first third of the book establishes the main characters and their situation and relationships; the rest of it revolves around a ...more

flag 42 likes · like · see review

Jul 18, 2013 Amanda rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: blog

**A few mild spoilers**

I liked this book. I really did. But here's the problem: I wanted to LOVE it. And, maybe, if I had read it before all of the hype, I would have. As it stands, I can only say that it was entertaining, but unexceptional.

Set in Mississippi circa the 1960's, the story focuses on three women: Skeeter, a white woman from a wealthy family who dreams of becoming a writer; Abileen, an intelligent black maid (with a closet love of reading and writing) who happens to work for one of **A few mild spoilers**

I liked this book. I really did. But here's the problem: I wanted to LOVE it. And, maybe, if I had read it before all of the hype, I would have. As it stands, I can only say that it was entertaining, but unexceptional.

Set in Mississippi circa the 1960's, the story focuses on three women: Skeeter, a white woman from a wealthy family who dreams of becoming a writer; Abileen, an intelligent black maid (with a closet love of reading and writing) who happens to work for one of Skeeter's friends; and Minny, a spitfire who has trouble keeping her mouth in check around the white women for whom she works, putting her at odds with another of Skeeter's friends. The narrative is told, in alternating points of view, by these three women who begin meeting in secret to write an anonymous book about what it's like to work as a black maid in Mississippi.

The book is funny, never veering too far off into heart-warming territory, and captures the dividing lines between race and class in the South. The characters are likable and the message is clear, but not overly didactic. And yet, there were a few things that bugged me enough to keep me from giving it a 4 star:

A) Other than a half-hearted stab at dialect, there's little to differentiate the voices of these three women. They have radically different backgrounds and personalities, but these differences seem "told" rather than "shown" in a truly distinctive voice for each character.

B) The character of Skeeter goes through a transformation toward the end of the book and becomes a hippie. The catalyst: hearing Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changing and buying a mini-skirt. That seemed a sloppy and shorthand way of communicating a radical shift in values and perspectives. As a result, I just couldn't buy what Stockett was selling in terms of Skeeter.

C) What happened to the naked guy that Celia beat the holy living shit out of? The police never found him, despite the fact that he was last seen running through the woods with an unhinged jaw and what was apparently quite an impressive member in his hand. Bizarre.

D) Despite the fact that all of this took place during a particularly race-charged time period when blacks were beaten, lynched, etc. for crossing racial barriers, you never really feel like these women are in palpable danger. Even toward the end, things work out a little too neatly for them. Stockett pulled her punches, though she is to be commended for writing about the violence done to others during that time period.

Final analysis: I liked it, I would recommend it, and I would read another of her books.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder ...more

flag 36 likes · like · see review

Jan 06, 2010 Wendy Darling rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: adult, hilarious, historical-fiction

This is not the type of book I would normally pick up at all. My book club chose it for a monthly read, however, and I'm so glad they did!

This is a fantastically funny, warm, and fascinating book that I literally read in a day because I was so engrossed in the story. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with all the characters. This is one of the few cases where I can see why the book has been on the bestseller list for ages--it deserves every accolade it's gotten. I've since sent the book to ...more

flag 32 likes · like · see review

Apr 25, 2011 Cheryl rated it 3 of 5 stars

I may be a dissenting voice here, but really, what's all the hype about??
While i found the story line somewaht intriguing and the book did hold my interest, i didn't find it to be particularly engrossing, much less compelling.
The first thing that smacked me right in the face was the whole dialect issue. Not knowing much about the book, after reading the first few sentences I flipped to the back cover over to reveal, yep, you guessed it, the all knowing white lady speaking for the oppressed and I may be a dissenting voice here, but really, what's all the hype about??
While i found the story line somewaht intriguing and the book did hold my interest, i didn't find it to be particularly engrossing, much less compelling.
The first thing that smacked me right in the face was the whole dialect issue. Not knowing much about the book, after reading the first few sentences I flipped to the back cover over to reveal, yep, you guessed it, the all knowing white lady speaking for the oppressed and disenfranchised colored women that cared for the homes and families of generations of thier white employers in the racially charged South. Really? Quite simply put, it didn't seem it was her story to tell. But I implored myself to keep an open mind and allow the story to unfold and tell itself. After all, this book seems to be wildly popular and capturing the attention of many.
I give Ms. Stockett props for tackleing the sensitive historical topic, or should I say blight? of racism in the early 1960's smack dab in Mississippi. At times she handles it deftly, though more often I thought it lacked depth, diminsion, true substance. While she employs the main characters to illustrate the tension of that era and there is no denying the huge racial divide, she uses mighty broad brush strokes to paint her one diminsional central white female characters as primarily lazy, self absorbed, materialistic, hypocritical Jr. League do-gooder egomaniacs, while their help are mostly a nuturing, kind, loving, hard working tight knit clan, who shower their young charges with patience, genuine affection, and care, empower them with the self esteem and self reliance that their ill equipped Mothers are unable to provide, due to the generational neglect and hyper criticism of their own Mothers. Again, Really? Are we swallowing this type of overreaching sterotyping? She gives a nod or two to a few of the periphial WF characters as possessing some moral fiber, but for most of them it is non existant. While these strokes are broad, other parts of the canvas are brushed over with light vague strokes, such as the intenseness and seriousness of the racial issues of that time, ie the refrences to Medgar Evers, etc. When put in perspective of the mundane day to day life of these women, it felt like an slight afterthought she managed to squeeze in. While it did keep me turning the pages, and I'm not sorry I read it, I found it to be flacid, predictable, at times inplausible, with an underdeveloped thin and slow plot line, sadly devoid of the beautiful eloquent prose of the famous Southern writers we know and love, Mark Twain, Harper Lee, Margaret Mitchell, Alice Walker, Pat Conroy.
It was Ms. Stockett's first novel, and it shows. This book was kindov like when you see that Blockbuster movie everyone is raving about, and go "Huh?" To me it read like watching "The Blind Side", much ado about nothing. ...more

flag 31 likes · like · see review

May 08, 2014 Laurel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

4.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this vivid story told from the perspective of three very different (but all incredibly strong) women living in Jackson, MS at the brink of the civil rights movement.

Eugenia (known to everyone as Skeeter) is a young white woman and aspiring author who has just returned home from college. At a local bridge club meeting, she finds herself troubled to hear of a friend's initiative to demand separate bathrooms in every household for the "colored" housekee 4.5 stars. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this vivid story told from the perspective of three very different (but all incredibly strong) women living in Jackson, MS at the brink of the civil rights movement.

Eugenia (known to everyone as Skeeter) is a young white woman and aspiring author who has just returned home from college. At a local bridge club meeting, she finds herself troubled to hear of a friend's initiative to demand separate bathrooms in every household for the "colored" housekeepers in order to be better protected from any potential diseases they were ignorantly thought to carry. With the tepid support of an editor in NY, Skeeter comes up with an idea to write a book containing interviews of the local maids (often referred to as "the help") as they describe in detail their daily lives serving white families. Skeeter slowly secures the assistance of Aibileen, who raised 17 white children throughout her life, and Aibileen's friend Minny, who keeps getting fired because she has a habit of speaking her mind.

Initially, the fear of discovery and retaliation keeps the maids from fully trusting Skeeter with their stories, even though they are promised to be kept anonymous. They (along with several others) ultimately want so deeply for their voices to be heard that they eventually agree to talk, risking their lives to do so.

I fell in love with each of these vibrant characters and was moved by the bravery of their plight. The audio version of the book is magnificently read by three wonderful actresses who do an amazing job at bringing these characters and their stories to life.

The Help is charming, eye-opening, funny, uplifting and even empowering. It is also not without flaws, however. Some of the characters (particularly Miss Hilly) are a bit overly stereotypical, and the ending wasn't quite as satisfying as I'd hoped. However, I felt these were minor flaws which did not take away from my overall enjoyment. The Help is a poignant first novel by an author from whom I will be anxious to read more in the future. ...more

flag 26 likes · like · see review

Feb 22, 2013 Mark rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: bookclub-reads

I loved it, sorry, but I really did. It is heartwarming and heartbreaking and a bit heart attack inducing when you encounter some of the characters who deserve nothing less than a big kick up their bigoted behinds.

Set at the beginning of the 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi it is the story of three women and the friendships that develop between them. The notable detail is the fact that two are black servants and one is a white woman of the Jackson gentry. The story is told through the accounts of I loved it, sorry, but I really did. It is heartwarming and heartbreaking and a bit heart attack inducing when you encounter some of the characters who deserve nothing less than a big kick up their bigoted behinds.

Set at the beginning of the 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi it is the story of three women and the friendships that develop between them. The notable detail is the fact that two are black servants and one is a white woman of the Jackson gentry. The story is told through the accounts of the three women as they move through their different lives but all growing closer and closer in the action that binds them together; the gathering and writing down of the accounts of thirteen black maids for publication in a book ' The Help ' by a New York publishing house.

It is powerful because Stockett manages to create three fairly distinct voices for her heroines and each contributes in her own individual way to the unfolding of the story. The dialogue is, in part, really funny and filled with life and character and at other times astoundingly moving.

However there are a few caveats to my praise. There are rather a lot of peripheral characters who do not add much to the overall moving forward of the plot and confuse the situation somewhat and some rather ridiculous sub-plots which are just total nonentity cul de sacs. Yes, naked man in the garden, i am talking about you.

Whenever i encounter huge pantomime-like villains, or in this case villainesses eg Miss Hilly, my 'is this really believable' gene kicks in. She seemed too petty, vicious and unnecessarily cruel all mixed up into one to be real and her position as Queen Bee seemed ridiculous because why would someone so stupidly egocentric and foul have ever got to the position of fashionista anyway. How did Skeeter, who admittedly at the beginning of the novel was a bit of a WASP though maybe without much of the protestant part, come to be friends with the hideously nauseous Hilly and the crassly stupid Elizabeth. I spent a good deal of her sections attempting to understand how she could ever have been mates with the two of them.

There were some moments of a delicacy and sensitivity which actually took my breath away; the encounter of Skeeter with the perpetually disregarded depressive who was one of the very few white women who shone in terms of her goodness and relationship with her maid and the lesson Skeeter took from that conversation was lovely, the beauty of the burgeoning relationship of Celia, Johnny and Minny climaxing towards the end of the book was truly lovely and I loved the throwaway line of the publisher concerning the Minny character in the book ' She is every Southern white woman's nightmare; I adore her '. She did shine as a great creation as indeed did Abilene.

The publisher herself was something and nothing, a total caricature of hard headed business woman who actually just came across as rude, arrogant and uncaring. One of the premises of the novel was how the white women of Jackson were all scrabbling around desparately trying to see whose chapter referred to whom and the machinations the writers go through to attempt to protect identities.

The thought did cross my mind that Kathryn Stockett has not got the same ability to obfuscate the proceedings; this is her first novel and so presumably the heartless bitch of a publisher knows exactly who she is. Equally presumably Mrs Stockett is banking on two million copies sold protecting her from the cold wind of reprisal and revenge. ...more

flag 25 likes · like · see review

Feb 23, 2010 Becky rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone with skin.

Shelves: historical-fiction, library-books, audiobook, the_south, 2010, highly-recommended, political, reviewed, tear-jerkers

I'm so, so glad that I gave this book a chance. I've had somewhat bad experience with books that have been hyped as much as this one has, and I generally try to avoid the hyped ones, but for once, finally, here is a book that lives up to the hype and more importantly, deserves it.

I don't really have words to say what I felt was great about this book without sounding cliche. This book was brilliant on so many levels, I feel like I want to start it over from the beginning and listen to it again. ...more

flag 25 likes · like · see review

Aug 02, 2011 Lina rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, not-my-type-of-book, other

People may look at the status updates I've made about The Help and then wonder why I'm giving this book only two stars. While I won't deny this is an enjoyable "summer-chick-flick", the truth is that this book offers nothing but a very basic understanding of the times in which this story takes place.

The point-of-view is split between three women:

Skeeter: The white protagonist, newly graduated from Ole Miss who later on decides to write a book about the Help in Jackson, Mississippi. Her story is People may look at the status updates I've made about The Help and then wonder why I'm giving this book only two stars. While I won't deny this is an enjoyable "summer-chick-flick", the truth is that this book offers nothing but a very basic understanding of the times in which this story takes place.

The point-of-view is split between three women:

Skeeter: The white protagonist, newly graduated from Ole Miss who later on decides to write a book about the Help in Jackson, Mississippi. Her story is very much the weak point of the story as she offers no isight and focuses mainly on her personal life and how she doesn't fit in with the rest of the women around her. At the core of her character I never saw her as a revolutionary, a de-segergationaist or a civil rights activist. I just saw a disenfranchised woman who was finding herself through other people. That's not to say Skeeter was a bad character, but I found her to have been a waste as the only reason her story was interesting was to find out about her maid Constantine.

Aibileen: An older African-American maid who has taken care of 17 or so families and is now working for a woman named Elizabeth as the caretaker of her toddler, Mae Mobley. Her own son recently died so she connects to the white girl so strongly and becomes such a strong maternal figure that Mae Mobley views Aibileen as her own mother. Aibileen delivers most of the heart of the story, but I can not deny that she came of pretty much a mammy archetype, although I'm sure that wasn't the intention.

Minny: Is the loud mouth, "strong" black woman maid whose been fired from 19 jobs for talking back. She is pretty much every sassy-black-woman stereotype thrown together. What is irritating about this is the fact that her sassy aspect takes over the issue that she's a victim of domestic abuse to the point where (view spoiler).

At it's core, The Help is filled with stories that needed to be told, but we only got snippets of those. Despite it supposed to be about (or at least should be about) Aibileen and Minny, a lot of time is spent on Skeeter's parts, which exist to fill in the romantic, outcast, etc. story-line that's needed. This book is filled with black male stereotypes (most are depicted as either women beaters or neglectful fathers) and the amount of white/black stereotypes are jarring. Sure there is truth behind some of the stereotypes, but when you are trying to sell a book as being meaningful, there must be some meaning.

What really got me was Skeeter's character. It almost comes off that the reason she was so able to be "understanding" and "Civil Rights-light" was because she was an outcast in her own white Southern society. You don't have to be an outcast in order to understand Civil Rights. You don't have to be that one mid-twenties year old woman in a town of all married women in order to see Civil Rights as a priority. Civil Rights are for everyone, therefore they can be understood by everyone--not just those outside the spectrum of normalcy.

So yeah, The Help is enjoyable, but on a very superficial level. I giggles at some parts and was interested in it, but only the way I'd be interesting in a Jodi Picolt novel. I will say that as a native New Yorker, I have often seen Black/West Indian/Hispanic women being nannies, maid, caretakers, etc towards white children. So the reality is The Help isn't just a 60's issue.

[Two articles I found interesting on the topic of this book/movie]:

http://nicolesconiers.com/blog/2011/0...
http://acriticalreviewofthehelp.wordp... ...more

flag 24 likes · like · see review

Jul 03, 2011 Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: set-aside

This was sent to me by a dear online friend, but unfortunately I cannot read it. It opens in the voice of Aibileene, a black housekeeper, who speaks pidgin English, while her white employer does not even have a southern accent. Set in 1962, it is obvious this is going to become a civil rights story. While I will quite agree that this story needs to be told, just as holocaust stories need to be told, in order that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past, I cannot feel good about its trying to do ...more

flag 24 likes · like · see review

Jun 14, 2010 Boof rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommends it for: Everyone!

Recommended to Boof by: Gloria

Shelves: arc-and-review-copies, read-in-2010, comfort-reading, my-most-amazing-books, usa

I finished this book this afternoon after trying to drag out the ending as long as possible. I did not want to leave these characters behind; I wanted to continue on their journey with them, make sure they were OK – I miss them already.

I have been hearing about this book and have read lots of positive reviews for the longest time but sometimes I get put off by books that have so much hype around them and end up passing them by. Oh how glad I am that I didn’t do this with The Help. It is worth e I finished this book this afternoon after trying to drag out the ending as long as possible. I did not want to leave these characters behind; I wanted to continue on their journey with them, make sure they were OK – I miss them already.

I have been hearing about this book and have read lots of positive reviews for the longest time but sometimes I get put off by books that have so much hype around them and end up passing them by. Oh how glad I am that I didn’t do this with The Help. It is worth every glowing review, every recommendation and every superlative ever written about it.

The book is set in Jackson, Mississippi in 1962 and is narrated by three women in turn. Aibileen and Minny are black maids and Miss Skeeter is a white college graduate who mourns the disappearance of her old maid and wants to do something more with her life than marry a local boy and have her kids raised by maids.

The story takes us with these women as the embark on a dangerous journey to try and change decades of prejudice and pave the way for a better life for the next generations. Through the words of each of these women we learn how rife racism and intolerance was back in the 1960′s deep south. There are tales of unbelievable cruelty and humiliation but also tales of tenderness and real love. It was so good to hear a story told primarily from the point of view of the black maids too and refreshing to hear both sides in all its rawness; the distrust and even hatred on both sides. The book also successfully managed to avoid being sensational or over-egging the pudding. Despite the subject matter (which is so important) the book never feels too heavy or preachy: it is as light as one of Minny’s famous caramel cakes and aswell as riotously funny and tender.

I implore you to read this book – you will fall in love with Aibileen, roar with laughter at Minny and rootfor Miss Skeeter for 450 pages. And I guarantee that Miss Hilly is one of the best bitches you will come across in any book! She is truly awful but so brilliantly drawn and you will root for her to get her just desserts (pun intended ☺).

I feel like I have lost friends now I have finished this book. It is a true gem and I highly, highly recommend.
...more

flag 23 likes · like · see review

« previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 … 99 100 next »

new topic
Discuss This Book

topics	posts	views	last activity
2015 Reading Chal...: The Help by Kathryn Stockett	13	51	21 hours, 41 min ago
Why do you think Elizabeth was so cold to her daughter??	12	181	Jan 08, 2015 10:04PM
USA Geography Cha...: The Help by Kathryn Stockett	1	1	Dec 29, 2014 06:00AM
Novel Books &...: Stockett, Kathryn - The Help - Informal Buddy Read; Starts January 15, 2015	16	147	Dec 21, 2014 07:47PM
UNPUTDOWNABLE	16	149	Dec 20, 2014 06:25AM
Book or Movie	19	111	Dec 18, 2014 02:59AM

Readers Also Enjoyed

Genres

Book Club

3,853 users

Fiction

1,309 users

Historical Fiction

1,229 users

Adult Fiction

830 users

Womens Fiction > Chick Lit

740 users

Drama

469 users

American > Southern

349 users

Classics

326 users

Contemporary

284 users

Novels

263 users

See top shelves...

About Kathryn Stockett

Kathryn Stockett was born and raised in Jackson, Mississippi. After graduating from the University of Alabama with a degree in English and creative writing, she moved to New York City, where she worked in magazine publishing for nine years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. She is working on her second novel.

More about Kathryn Stockett...

Books by Kathryn Stockett

Of Love and Life: Love Affairs for Grown-Ups / The Help / Water, Stone, Heart

CliffsNotes on Stockett's The Help (CliffsNotes)

More…

Share This Book

+ Share on your website

Trivia About The Help

149 trivia questions
23 quizzes

More quizzes & trivia...

Quotes from The Help

“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” — 3108 likes

“Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?” — 1106 likes

More quotes…

title link	preview: The Help
avg rating	preview: The Help Goodreads rating: 4.44 (1138869 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4667024-the-help?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1346100365l/4667024.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4667024-the-help?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]The Help by Kathryn Stockett[/url]

See a Problem?

Preview — The Help by Kathryn Stockett