The Help

by Kathryn Stockett

Hardcover

English language

Published Jan. 13, 2009 by Thorndike Press.

ISBN:: 978-1-4104-1553-0
OCLC Number:: 299281435

Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home after graduating from Ole Miss, but her mother will not be happy until she has a ring on her finger. Aibileen is a black maid, a wise, regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Minny, Aibileen's best friend, can cook like nobody's business, but she can't mind her tongue so she can't keep a job. It's 1962, and these three ordinary women are about to take one extraordinary step that forever changes a town and the way women--mothers, daughters, caregivers, friends--view one another. (back cover)

24 editions

Kadomi reviewed The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Review of 'The Help' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Loved it. A very emotional story set in Jackson, Mississipi in the early 60s. We get three different PoVs: Aibileen and Minny, two black maids, and Skeeter, a white young woman who starts a project of interviewing maids about their work to make it as a big time author.

The only thing I found a bit grating at times was the dialect all the black characters used, whereas all white women spoke flawlessly. A bit too much. Other than that, it was a lovely read.

Rob Warner reviewed The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Review of 'The Help' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

I found myself hoping that the people in the book were paper-thin caricatures of the Old South, but news reports from that time period indicate that Stockett is likely true to period sentiments. I also found myself projecting the tale to a much earlier time than the 1960s, that surely by the 1960s people weren't so base, but again history trips me up. I found this depressing, as well as an indication that we're not so very different from current-day terrorists that we despise and fear. Man's capacity for evil to man is staggering.

That said, however, this book celebrates bravery and standing for something and accepting the consequences. It moves well, reads well, and makes you want to be both braver and better.