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The Help [Hardcover]

Kathryn Stockett
4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6,766 customer reviews)

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Book Description

February 10, 2009
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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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. What perfect timing for this optimistic, uplifting debut novel (and maiden publication of Amy Einhorn's new imprint) set during the nascent civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss., where black women were trusted to raise white children but not to polish the household silver. Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is just home from college in 1962, and, anxious to become a writer, is advised to hone her chops by writing about what disturbs you. The budding social activist begins to collect the stories of the black women on whom the country club sets relies and mistrusts enlisting the help of Aibileen, a maid who's raised 17 children, and Aibileen's best friend Minny, who's found herself unemployed more than a few times after mouthing off to her white employers. The book Skeeter puts together based on their stories is scathing and shocking, bringing pride and hope to the black community, while giving Skeeter the courage to break down her personal boundaries and pursue her dreams. Assured and layered, full of heart and history, this one has bestseller written all over it. (Feb.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

In writing about such a troubled time in American history, Southern-born Stockett takes a big risk, one that paid off enormously. Critics praised Stockett's skillful depiction of the ironies and hypocrisies that defined an era, without resorting to depressing or controversial clich√©s. Rather, Stockett focuses on the fascinating and complex relationships between vastly different members of a household. Additionally, reviewers loved (and loathed) Stockett's three-dimensional characters—and cheered and hissed their favorites to the end. Several critics questioned Stockett's decision to use a heavy dialect solely for the black characters. Overall, however, The Help is a compassionate, original story, as well as an excellent choice for book groups.

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 464 pages
  • Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam (February 10, 2009)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0399155341
  • ISBN-13: 978-0399155345
  • Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6,766 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,942 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

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 and marketing for nine years. The Help is her first novel.

Customer Reviews

Very well written, great characters and great story. Marie  |  1,767 reviewers made a similar statement
I read the book and then saw the movie. Shopping Minnie  |  735 reviewers made a similar statement
This book had your interest from page one till the very end! trisha711  |  542 reviewers made a similar statement
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2,930 of 3,099 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Book in Years! An Instant Classic! January 28, 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
The Help is about a young white woman in the early 1960s in Mississippi who becomes interested in the plight of the black ladies' maids that every family has working for them. She writes their stories about mistreatment, abuse and heartbreaks of working in white families' homes, all just before the Civil Rights revolution. That is the story in a nutshell - but it is so much more than just stories.

This is the best book I have read in years! I can't recommend it enough! It is fabulous and I think they will make a movie out of it. I would compare it to the writings of Carson McCullers, Harper Lee, Truman Capote and even Margaret Mitchell. The story grabs you and doesn't let you go. You can smell the melted tar on the Mississippi roads, the toil in the cotton fields, the grits burning on the stove. The theme is the indomitable will of human beings to survive against all odds - because of the color of their skin. It is a heart-wrenching account and you will never fondly remember the times of the Jim Crow laws (if you ever did). The pure, down and out bitchery of the white ladies who become dissatisfied with their maids and proceed to ruin their lives is portrayed vividly. The desperation of the maids' circumstances is truly touching. I have laughed and cried my way through this book and plan to re-read it. I highly recommend this book because it is going to be talked about as the best book of the year.
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1,381 of 1,459 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars A New Classic for America March 1, 2009
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)
A new classic has been born. Kathryn Sockett's "The Help" will live in hearts and minds, be taught in schools, be cherished by readers. The three women who form its core, idealistic Skeeter, loving Aibileen, and sarcastic, sassy Minny, narrate their chapters each in a voice that is distinctive as Minny's caramel cake no one else in Jackson, Mississippi, can duplicate.

These stories of the black maids working for white women in the state of Mississippi of the 60s have an insiders' view of child-rearing, Junior League benefits, town gossip, and race relations.

Hilly is the town's white Queen Bee with an antebellum attitude towards race. She hopes to lead her minions into the latter part of the century with the "enlightened" view of making sure every home in Jackson, Mississippi, has a separate toilet for the help. Her crusade is, she says, based on clear hygienic criteria, which will save both blacks and whites from heinous diseases.

Despite the fact that the maids prepare the food, care for the children, and clean every part of every home, privy to every secret, many of the white women look at their black maids as an alien race. There are more enlightened views, especially those of Skeeter, a white, single woman with a college degree, who aspires to more than earning her MRS. Skeeter begins collecting the maids' stories. And the maids themselves find the issue of race humiliating, infuriating, life-controlling. Race sows bitter seeds in the dignity of women who feel they have no choices except to follow their mamas into the white women's kitchens and laundries. Aibilene says, "I just want things to be better for the kids." Their hopes lie in education and improvement, change someday for their children.

There is real danger for the maids sharing their stories as well as danger for Skeeter herself. The death of Medgar Evers touches the women deeply, making them question their work and a decision to forge ahead, hoping their book can be published anonymously and yet not recognized by the very white women they know to the last deviled egg and crack in a dining room table.

The relationships between the maids and the white children, the maids and some kind employers, including "white trash" Cecilia Foot, illuminate the strange history of the South. The love Aibileen shows for Mae Mobley matches the love Skeeter felt as a white child from her maid-nanny Constantine.

There is never a dull moment in this long book. It is compulsively readable while teaching strong truths about the way the United States evolved from a shameful undercurrent of persistent racism to the hopes and dreams of Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks. Ultimately, will the next generations children learn (and be taught) that skin color is nothing more than a wrapping for the person who lives within?
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725 of 787 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars a treasure of a book January 20, 2009
Format:Hardcover
I was lucky enough to come across an advanced reader copy of this book. Set in Mississippi during the civil rights movement, the story is narrated by the three principal characters...Minny and Aibileen, two black maids, and Miss Skeeter, a young, white woman newly graduated from college. The characters are wonderfully developed, as are the historical background and setting. As each character took her turn at narrating, she became my favorite character until the next one took over again.I was torn between not being able to put the book down and not wanting it to end.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best stories ever told
I had read this book from our local library had to have it when I saw it here, reread and gave it to sister, who somehow had not heard of it..She loved it. Read more
Published 1 hour ago by ewife
5.0 out of 5 stars just a great story!
to think this happened in my lifetime is hard to believe. easy read, great story just get it and see.
Published 13 hours ago by Terry D
4.0 out of 5 stars Kathryn Stockett
Liked it because I grew up in the South and she was able to
develop the characters as I personally have known in my
life. Read more
Published 20 hours ago by peaches
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic!
Such a good read! Couldn't put it down even if I wanted to. Worth every penny and more! Recommended to all!
Published 21 hours ago by Sofia Diaz
5.0 out of 5 stars My partner watched the movie and was impressed.
This is one book that has received great reviews from the internet, Radio and Television. Just read it and Learn about Black peoples struggle.
Published 1 day ago by Mbuyisa
5.0 out of 5 stars Wonderful book
This was one of the most enjoyable and emotional books I have read in recent years. An amazing story that opened my eyes to the racism and poor treatment of coloured people in that... Read more
Published 1 day ago by Elizabeth
5.0 out of 5 stars A touche topic made easy reading
The book was easy to read even though the topic is quite a sticky one. As much as times have changed, people are still very aware of "those days". Read more
Published 1 day ago by Tania
5.0 out of 5 stars I can relate
This book was so true to the facts. I can remember my mom working cleaning houses and she took me along with her on Saturdays because of child care issues. Read more
Published 2 days ago by Frederica Mack
4.0 out of 5 stars A review from the help for The Help :)
I read this book a while after the movie, which is maybe why it took me a while to really sit down and get into it. However, this book was (like always) a million times better! Read more
Published 2 days ago by Jillian Asher
5.0 out of 5 stars Real Steal
Fantastic. A book about humanity, morality. Contains surprising guidance for mothers on learning to treasure their children. Well written and engaging.
Published 2 days ago by Paula Zwierzynski
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