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The Help |  | Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95 (EUR 21.28)
Buy New: $9.50 (EUR 8.10)
as of 3/16/2010 01:51 UTC details
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Seller: Amazon.com
Rating:  1788 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.8
ISBN: 0399155341
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.6
EAN: 9780399155345
ASIN: 0399155341
Publication Date: February 10, 2009
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| • | ISBN13: 9780399155345 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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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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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1788
 The End of an Era March 16, 2010
Chevy Chase Dad (Chevy Chase, MD USA)
This is a compelling and very readable book about life in Jackson, Mississippi, at the dawn of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Or, more accurately, it is about life in the waning days of the Jim Crow South, a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, after the reaction had set in but before the real change had taken root. The book transports the reader into a world governed by rigid social (and racial) rules, both written and unwritten. I thought the book succeeded brilliantly both in conveying the mood of a particular place and time, and also in drawing the reader into an engaging and suspenseful plot. I really had a building sense of dread as I read along, and I thought the book had one of the best endings of any book I've read in years -- never an easy feat to pull off. Sure, the characters tend to be one-dimensional (pretty easy to tell who's wearing the white hats and the black hats, as it were), but I still found them interesting and believable. Let me put it this way: I stayed up til 3 in the morning to finish it -- that pretty much says it all. Kudos to the author on her first novel.
Great read! March 15, 2010
Lilly Whitworth (Denver, CO)
This book places you in a completely different time and provides a perspective that many people don't often consider. It was very easy to read, and I loved the characters from which the story was being told. I found myself wishing I could meet them in person and spend time with them. I am amazed and inspired by their courage and confidence despite the times. I highly recommend this one!
Excellent March 15, 2010
L. A. Mueller (Missouri)
I remember the day in American History when I learned what American settlers did to the Native Americans, the sick I felt in my stomach. I remember the day that an 8th-grade Beth, Danica, and Linden recorded a documentary / play about Dachau for the History Day competition, how it really hit me what the Nazis did to the Jews, the homosexuals, the gypsies, the list goes on.
But understanding slavery, the Antebellum South, black struggles in the 20th century, civil rights 60s, even the racism still strong in my lifetime, it did not happen in a flash like those other times. We still sugar coat it. But white people have pretended for years that we were better than black people because of our skin color. That one obvious difference made our ancestors feel like black people were not as smart, carried diseases, were not real humans. White people today still use that pigmentation as an excuse for prejudice.
This saddens me to the point of tears. If you choose to hate someone because their skin color is different from yours, you might as well hate someone who's eye color is different from yours. The difference is about as significant.
All that to say that The Help is an excellent book. I felt the pain of the house help and hated the arrogant, simple-minded, racist white women. It's honest, heart-breaking, and inspiring.
See more here: [...]
Touching, Brilliant, Wonderful March 15, 2010
Sarah Boring (Tennessee)
I absolutely loved this story. The way each chapter is written from a different character's point of view made falling in love with these people so easy. Stockett painted such an amazing picture I could absolutely feel the sweltering summer heat and then that first cool blast of relief from the gaudy window air conditioner.
I sometimes get bored or dread trudging through when so many details are described in stories if the characters really have no depth to them but I couldn't get enough of this book. Even the seemingly unimportant details...they just made me love this story more. I never wanted it to end.
I can't wait for the movie and I'm sure it won't be too long before I'm reading this book again.
 depressing and really stretches the truth March 15, 2010
Book Bunny (Mendon, NY USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I, too, had a alot of trouble with the dialect. The white ladies would have spoken with an accent similiar to their maids but that's not reflected in the book.
I think it's unfair to highlight the bad situations and not say more about the good relationships. I grew up in Tenn in the 50s. My parents and their friends were from the deep south: Alabama, South Carolina, Georgia, Mississippi. Yes, we had 'help' as did our neighbors. But not one of them was mistreated. In fact, the ladies who employed the maids actually took an interest in their well being: a warm coat, enough food, the kids had shoes. And it wasn't done in a 'charity' way. It was just an employer looking out for an employee. All us white kids were expected to show courtesy and answer 'Yes Ma'am' to our maids.
I also had a huge problem with that pie. It could and should have been handled in a more genteel manner. I hate it when an author resorts to 'shock' to boost sales.
Another thing I'd like to point out is that Yankees had their own maids and, in some cases, were even worse to their help: Irish & Jews were particularly considered lower than the low and these people were never considered a part of the family.
Please read this book 'with a grain of salt.' Yes, segregation and prejudice were reprehensible. Our Southern culture desperately needed to be changed and thank goodness it was. But please don't think that all Southern women acted like those in Jackson - it's just not true.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1788
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