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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.
Features
- ISBN13: 9780399155345
- Condition: New
- Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Reviews
AMAZING!
by ekh32 from on 2010-07-31
What a wonderful book. I couldn't set it down! Not only does it keep your attention and in suspense, but it sends a wonderful message. The characters in the story are so real and you fall in love with them (well most of them).
GET THIS BOOK, you won't be disappointed!
Intense.
by K. Kenyon-Berry from Saratoga Springs, NY on 2010-07-31
I bought this book on impulse, and I am so glad I did! It is an awesome story and an eyeopener, especially to those of us who did not live in the era the book was written in. It is hard to imagine that people were treated this way, in the USA, in the 1950-60s. Yay for Miss Skeeter, who against all odds, liberated her friends! I could not put this book down once I started!
Fabulous Book
by Tamara L. Torbleau from MC FARLAND, WI, US on 2010-07-31
I was thrown in to the story as soon as I started reading and couldn't put this book down. I finished it in 24 hours and then was sad that it was done. If you're interested in other stories involving the treatment of African Americans after they were considered "free", I suggest you read "I, Alex Cross".I, Alex Cross
The Help needed help
by Sheldon Laskin from Baltimore, MD on 2010-07-30
I liked much of this novel but can't say it is a great book. The main problem is that the author never found a consistent tone for the novel. I call this the "reverse Irving" effect. John Irving is a master at underscoring the ultimate horror in his novels by initially setting a very humorous tone and then suddenly shifting gears. Comedy to horror works; horror to comedy does not. The Help early on does manage to convey the fear of being either an "uppity" black or a pro-civil rights white in the South of the early '60's. But the author throws that away by interjecting humor (childish, bad humor at that), starting with the fundraising gala. The book just loses all credibility at that point. The "dramatic" confrontation between Celia and Hilly at the gala is just silly and the Terrible Awful is ridiculous. While it was apparent that the Constantine story would have something to do with her daughter, the resolution of that plot line lacked all credibility -- this is the early 60's, not the late 60's and the daughter came across as a Black Power radical about five years too soon (speaking of authenticity, no Jew would ever describe Christmas by saying "we call it Hanukah" as Stein did to Skeeter).
Also, the author's treatment of Celia is puzzling, given that this is a book about prejudice and stereotyping. As written, Celia just confirms all cliches about poor, white trash -- her brains are entirely in her boobs. I wanted to see Celia really see Hilly for what she was at the gala, not kiss her ass. Similarly, it is inconceivable to me that Skeeter would care for a nanosecond that Hilly and Elizabeth had dumped her -- she had already moved far beyond them by that point.
Finally, and this may be a bit unfair, but my feeling all along while reading it is that this book was written forty years too late. One of the things that makes To Kill a Mockingbird so enduring is precisely that it was written at the time; as such it was a gutsy book to write, and the writing of it shaped history. The Help is "merely" an historical novel -- not terribly courageous to write now and with no new insights on the times about which it deals. In forty years, people will still be reading Mockingbird. But not The Help.
Down to earth and heart-warming
by E. Chan from Brooklyn, NY on 2010-07-30
Amazing book -- great read! I had to slow myself down because I dreaded coming to the end and not having any more to read. It's written in a down-to-earth, raw manner without being over the top and insulting. Aside from the main storyline, it speaks to being a woman [of many kinds] and being a mother. There were many moments where I felt compelled to pause and just reflect. Beautifully written, very entertaining.
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US $119.99
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