| The Help  |  | Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
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Rating:  2516 reviews
Sales Rank: 12
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
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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, Aibileenâs best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobodyâs business, but she canât mind her tongue, so sheâs 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 womenâmothers, daughters, caregivers, friendsâview 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 donât.
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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 2516
 didn't want it to end September 5, 2010
Joy of Reading (Boston, MA)
Like almost everyone else, I loved this book. I bought it because it was recommended by a friend without knowing anything about it. Had I known it was about the racial struggles during the 1960's, I might have passed. But the story is much more than that. And the author's characterization is so realistic, she creates an emotional rollercoaster that you just don't want to end. I look forward to reading future works by her. And so will you.
 Perspective of the 60s segregation in the South September 5, 2010
Lance Finfrock (San Diego, CA USA)
A great book to get a perspective of the 60s segregation in the South. I have always heard that in the 60's there was a lot of racism, but I really did not realize how much. The book really shows how far racism has come in the last 50 years. I enjoyed seeing the story told from both perspectives, the black housemaids and the white employers.
The book read really well. I loved how the book was written in the black southern ascent (when in the view of the housemaids), but I was disappointed that they did not do the same for the white people. The book was written in a way that made you not want to stop reading it. Once I got about half way through the book, I kept finding myself wanting to know what was going to happen next. This made me read through the book really fast.
For one that did not live in the 60s, I would recommend this book to everyone.
 Black Maids Speak---and it's GOOD! September 3, 2010
Jay Gilbertson (Prairie Farm, WI USA)
The Help
by Kathryn Stockett
Book Review by Jay Gilbertson
Though this novel has soared up every chart, what drew me in and kept me reading was author Stockett's risky writing technique. Using first person, (meaning the reader is seeing the world from one perspective) the novel is told through the eyes of three very different women. The tale opens in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi and if you haven't figured it out yet, the main theme concerns the domestic help--the maids.
Two out of the three characters saved this work from completely tanking; Aibileen and Minny. Though heavy on the caricature side, their voices and concerns and harsh realities were the thunder in this perfect storm of racial tension about to rip open. As the maids rub and scrub the homes of the privileged white women, they also care for their children. What's significant is the nature of these exploited maids in that they choose to love and care for them as if they were their own.
The opening:
"Mae Mobley was born on a early Sunday morning in August, 1960. A church baby we like to call it. Taking care a white babies, that's what I do, along with all the cooking and the cleaning. I done raised seventeen kids in my lifetime. I know how to get them babies to sleep, stop crying, and go in the toilet bowl before they mamas even get out a bed in the morning..."
The interaction of the `maid-network' and how they manage to find some crumbs of pride and wring a few drops of happiness out of a really rotten situation should have been the theme. Should have.
Enter Eugenia Phelan or Skeeter as everyone but her mother calls her. A college graduate with all the trimmings of a rich southern girl--minus one--no man in sight. Here is where The Help morphed into cliché-ville . Since Skeeter can't seem to attract the proper blood-line in accordance to her mother's long list of family- tie-must-haves, she realizes her only escape from the plantation is to land a book deal. She sets out to interview (steal) as many of the maid's tales of what really went on during their day. Some of the stories are brutal and filled me with shame, while a few others offered a big helping of my favorite dish; hope. That is the road this book should have taken.
In the end, Skeeter's book is a big success and off to New York, contract in hand, she goes. As for the other two women, it's not so clear. Then I learned exactly why the author was so intent on having Skeeter presented as a sugar-coated-helpful-white-lady. After the novel ends, the author had added: `Kathryn Stockett, in her own words.' Basically, Stockett limply confesses her guilt for never having asked her very own family maid this one question: What did it feel like to be black in Mississippi, working for her white family?
I would imagine she already knew...
Enlightment . September 3, 2010
M. W. M. (OH)
I finished reading this book, after having heard about it for at least a year. I must say I was a young bride in the sixties, engrossed in my life and not truly realizing what was taking place in our southern states. The book brought to me an invitation into their lives at that time. Fact or fiction I thank Ms Stockett for her story. I found myself apologizing, yes, for not truly having the knowledge I should have had. There were many heart warming stories, so many humorous parts I had to pause, lay the book down as I enjoyed what I had just read. When it was a time of horror I again found I had laid the book down while my mind and heart caught up with each other. I had to just pause and give myself time. I found myself laughing aloud and cheering for Abileen and the other black ladies and their strength and boldness they forced upon themselves. So proud of them was/am I and of dear Skeeter. The ending was good, many good things were happening all due to their bravery! ... I thank the author for her having enlightening me to this particular part of life in the south. MWM
WOW! September 3, 2010
Khanweezy (Florida)
Beautiful, amazing, soulful, witty, sad, touching, real (not literally)... Actually, I can't find the words to describe the book, but it is great and definitely a must read. 2 things I noticed aside from the story itself that I love about Kathryn Stockett's writing (and I only mention these two because I'm sure the other reviewers have already raved about all her other great qualities):
1. She so perfectly describes the physical aspects of any situation where characters interact, especially body language and facial expressions. I found myself thinking, "I never realized people make that face when they feel that way, but she nailed it!" For example, she describes Skeeter's mother driving away from the house in the car that Skeeter needed right away, and the mother stops briefly, starts driving again, then stops again and finally pulls up to the house. The mother says she forgot something and remembered it on her way towards the road (they have a long driveway). I just thought it was such a perfect description of how people really act when they forget something. "Aww, man! Ahhh, forget it! Nah, I really better go back and get it. "
2. Related to the first, she has a good way of linking body language, facial expression and physical action to tell us what people are really thinking or intending.
READ THIS BOOK!!
Showing reviews 1-5 of 2516
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