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The Help

by Kathryn Stockett (Goodreads Author)

4.45 · Rating Details · 1,421,769 Ratings · 76,132 Reviews

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 C ...more

Hardcover, 444 pages

Published February 10th 2009 by Amy Einhorn Books (first published January 1st 2009)

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Community Reviews

(showing 1-30 of 3,000)

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Oct 21, 2012 Sparrow marked it as abandoned

Recommends it for: read Coming of Age in Mississippi instead, please

Recommended to Sparrow by: Linda Harrison, Gibney

Shelves: punching-tour, disturbing, reviewed

I have this terrible, dreary feeling in my diaphragm area this morning, and I’m not positive what it’s about, but I blame some of it on this book, which I am not going to finish. I have a friend who is mad at me right now for liking stupid stuff, but the thing is that I do like stupid stuff sometimes, and I think it would be really boring to only like smart things. What I don’t like is when smart (or even middle-brained) writers take an important topic and make it petty through guessing about wh ...more

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Jul 28, 2010 Joe rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: gift, mlis-book-club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I read the first paragraph of The Help, absorbing the words, but suddenly being caught off guard by the dialect. I stopped reading.

I shifted the book in my hands, flipping to the author's biography and photograph on the back of the dust jacket.

Staring up at me was this:

[image error]

Oh, sweet Jesus, I thought. An affluent, white Manhattanite. Great. And one who apparently fancies herself a master at Southern Black Vernacular. Even better.

I rolled my eyes and returned to page one, fully prepared ...more

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Jul 06, 2011 Caroline rated it did not like it

I was uncomfortable with the tone of the book; I felt that the author played to very stereotypical themes, and gave the characters (especially the African American ones) very inappropriate and obvious voices and structure in terms constructing their mental character. I understand that the author wrote much of this as a result of her experiences growing up in the south in the 1960's, and that it may seem authentic to her, and that she was even trying to be respectful of the people and the time; b ...more

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Jul 28, 2009 Annalisa rated it it was amazing

Recommended to Annalisa by: Jeana Quigley

Shelves: book-club, historical-fiction, voice

Here is an illustrative tale of what it was like to be a black maid during the civil rights movement of the 1960s in racially conflicted Mississippi. There is such deep history in the black/white relationship and this story beautifully shows the complex spectrum, not only the hate, abuse, mistrust, but the love, attachment, dependence.

Stockett includes this quote by Howell Raines in her personal except at the end of the novel: There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that o Here is an illustrative tale of what it was like to be a black maid during the civil rights movement of the 1960s in racially conflicted Mississippi. There is such deep history in the black/white relationship and this story beautifully shows the complex spectrum, not only the hate, abuse, mistrust, but the love, attachment, dependence.

Stockett includes this quote by Howell Raines in her personal except at the end of the novel: There is no trickier subject for a writer from the South than that of affection between a black person and a white one in the unequal world of segregation. For the dishonesty upon which a society is founded makes every emotion suspect, makes it impossible to know whether what flowed between two people was honest feeling or pity or pragmatism. An eloquent way to describe Stockett's intentions for this novel. I know most reviews will probably focus on the racial relationships in the book, but to me the most haunting statement was that when you are paying someone to care for you and their livelihood depends on making you happy, you can't expect an honest relationship.

I did not expect this book to hit so close to home. After all, I did not grow up in the South and completely missed the racial mind shift in the country. But the book isn't just about racism and civil rights. It's about the employer relationship too. And I did grow up in South America with a maid trying to keep herself out of poverty by making our crazy family happy. As much as we loved her, I can see so many of the pitfalls from these complex relationships in my own history. I know our maid was stuck between pleasing my mother and raising us the way she believed appropriate. I know it was physically hard to work from sunup to late everyday and emotionally hard to never relax because she wasn't the decision maker of our home and at any moment she could be reprimanded for making the wrong decision. She had absolutely no power, and yet she was all powerful to shape and mold us.

I needed her, felt bad for how much I imposed upon her, but I never voiced how much I appreciated or loved her. I took her for granted. Even though she was paid to love us, I know she did. We were her children, especially my youngest brothers. And yet when she moved back home, we lost contact. Was it out of laziness of our own narcissistic lives or was the complexity of our relationship so draining she cut the tie? It is my fear that she thinks we did not return her affection and only thought of her as the maid. I often think about her, we all reminisce about her wondering where she is, and more than anything, I just want to know that she is happy and tell her thank you. It is so strange that someone who is such a vital part of your childhood can just vanish out of your life. "They say its like true love, good help. You only get one in a lifetime." I know. Believe me, I know.

The story is strong and real and touched something deep inside me. I could so relate to the motherly love from Constantine to Skeeter, see that pain in the triangle between Aibileen and Mae Mobley and Elizabeth, feel the exasperation of Minny toward Celia, and understand the complexity of the good and bad, the love and hate, the fear and security. Stockett captured all these emotions.

I also loved the writing style. When style compliments plot, I get giddy. I don't always love grammatically incorrect prose or books about an author trying to be published, but here it works because it's honest. The novel is about a white woman secretly compiling true accounts of black maids--and the novel is in essence a white author trying to understand black maids. The styles parallel each other as do the messages. The point of Skeeter's novel is to make people see that people are just people no matter the color of their skin and Stockett's novel beautifully portrays that with both good and bad on both sides. The fictional novel cover is decorated with the white dove of love and understanding. To get us there, Stockett gives us three ordinary birds, a picture of ordinary life asking to be accepted for its honest simplicity.

This book is Stockett's masterpiece, that story in her that was just itching to get out. From the first page, the voice of the characters took vivid form and became real, breathing people. I loved Aibileen, but think I loved Minny's voice more because she is such a strong character. Besides the maids, I loved Hilly as a portrayal of the white Southern belle with the ingrained belief that black people are not as good as whites, verbalized as "separate but equal" so it doesn't sound racist. My favorite scene was when Hilly says they have to be careful of racists because they are out there. She's a bit over the top, but if you've been to the South, not that far of a stretch. I just would have liked to find some redeeming qualities in her from Skeeter's perspective.

While there are some instances where I felt Stockett was squeezing historical facts into the novel, forming the plot around these events instead of letting them play backdrop, and occasionally I could read the modern woman in this tale pushing her message too hard, Stockett's sincerity to understand and appreciate shines through. She lived this book to some extent and the story is a part of her. Because it's important to her it becomes important to me. ...more

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Jun 21, 2010 Ellen rated it it was ok

Shelves: novels

The Kindle DX I ordered is galloping to the rescue today...

description

AND, for all the book purists (which would include me), this is a need, rather than a want. Post-several eye surgeries, I'm just plain sick of struggling to read the words on a page.

However, despite the visual challenges, I read all 451 pages of The Help yesterday. Clearly, the book held my interest. However, I spent last night pondering why the book wasn't as good as my nonstop reading would indicate.

What was wrong?

Most of all, I thin ...more

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View all 53 comments

Rhys I just got notice of the above 51st reply to Ellen's critique. Congratultions, Ellen; and congratulations to Miss Kathryn and The Help. Such a robust ...more
updated Aug 09, 2014 10:49PM

Mila I am not a fan of this. I simply did not find it compelling and it is hard to articulate why. That being said, I don’t think any of the white women fo ...more
updated Sep 25, 2015 07:20PM

Dec 02, 2015 Lola Reviewer rated it really liked it

Shelves: adult, historical-fiction, fiction, politics

“Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?”

Color me surprised. I’m not one to read many historical fictions, especially when they don’t include any fantasy elements. They read like nonfiction, and nonfiction is only good for me if I’m in need of sleep. B-but…

The Help is different. It doesn’t only describe the life of housemaids, in the second half of the 20th century, in M ...more

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Apr 13, 2010 karen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: it-is-for-class

enthusiasm!!!

this book and i almost never met. and that would have been tragic. the fault is mostly mine - i mean, the book made no secret of its existence - a billion weeks on the best seller list, every third customer asking for it at work, displays and reviews and people on here praising it to the heavens. it practically spread its legs for me, but i just kept walking. i figured it was something for the ladies, like sex and the city, which i don't have to have ever seen an episode of to know
enthusiasm!!!

this book and i almost never met. and that would have been tragic. the fault is mostly mine - i mean, the book made no secret of its existence - a billion weeks on the best seller list, every third customer asking for it at work, displays and reviews and people on here praising it to the heavens. it practically spread its legs for me, but i just kept walking. i figured it was something for the ladies, like sex and the city, which i don't have to have ever seen an episode of to know that it's not something i would enjoy. i figured that this book was on the ladder one rung above chick lit. so i am to blame for my snobbish dismissiveness, but have you seen this cover?? what is with that sickroom color scheme? and i hate those stupid little birds. what is chip kidd so busy doing that he can't just pop over here and lend a hand?? it is not my fault for thinking it was a crappy book when that cover wanted me to think it is a crappy book.

but this book is good. really, really good. again, i thank you, readers' advisory class, for fixing me up with this book. it has been a long time since i have read such a frankly entertaining book. (if a book about the emotionally-charged early days of the civil rights movement can be called entertaining.) this is just an effortlessly told story, split between three different women, whose voices and perspectives never run together - the secondary characters are also completely believable and are all different brands of repellent, with some token sympathetic characters tossed in for the halibut. i don't even know what to say, i just feel all "aw, shucks, i loved this book" about it - there were several times i would catch myself grinning at a turn of phrase or a situation, and every time i would start to doubt myself, that maybe i would like sex and the city. or buffy the vampire slayer or all these things i have formerly judged without having read/seen/eaten. maybe i am like these white women in the book, taking their help for granted and assuming they have nothing to say to each other because of their unwillingness to talk to them and know them as human beings. maybe buffy and i have so much to learn from one another...

then i would snap out of it and remember that my gut opinions are 99.99% foolproof.

so for you other people, who need to be swayed by hype - i give you hype. this book's hype is merited - it would be a perfect book to read this summer when you are melting from the sun and need a good story.. this is a very tender and loving book, about hope and sisterhood and opportunity, but also about beatings and terror and shame.

still hate those birds, though. ...more

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Apr 15, 2011 Maegen rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, recommended-to-me, disappointments

While it was a well-written effort, I didn't find it as breathtaking as the rest of the world. It more or less rubbed me the wrong way. It reads like the musings of a white woman attempting to have an uncomfortable conversation, without really wanting to be uncomfortable. It's incredibly hard to write with integrity about race and be completely honest and vulnerable. The author failed to make me believe she was doing anything beyond a show & tell. And if her intent isn't anything greater, th ...more

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Jan 03, 2016 Nancy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, race-relations, made-me-cry, library-books, favorites, audio-books, shelf-inflicted, award-winners

Posted at Shelf Inflicted

One of my co-workers, a guy who isn’t much of a reader, borrowed The Help from the library based on his English professor’s recommendation. The guy just couldn’t stop talking about the story, so I decided to borrow the audio book. It’s not very often I get to discuss books with people in real life and I wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by. Audio books are good for me. I was so engrossed in the story and characters that I drove the speed limit on the highway and
Posted at Shelf Inflicted

One of my co-workers, a guy who isn’t much of a reader, borrowed The Help from the library based on his English professor’s recommendation. The guy just couldn’t stop talking about the story, so I decided to borrow the audio book. It’s not very often I get to discuss books with people in real life and I wasn’t going to let this opportunity slip by. Audio books are good for me. I was so engrossed in the story and characters that I drove the speed limit on the highway and took the scenic route while running errands. Sometimes I went out at lunch and needlessly drove in circles, or sat in the parking lot at work, waiting for a good place to stop.

It is 1962 in Jackson, Mississippi. Twenty-two year-old Eugenia “Skeeter” Phelan has returned home after graduating college to find that Constantine, her family’s maid and the woman who raised her, has mysteriously disappeared. Aibileen is a black maid in her 50’s who works for the Leefolt family and cares deeply for their daughter, Mae Mobley. She is still grieving for her young son, who died in a workplace accident. Minny is Aibileen’s closest friend and a wonderful cook, but her mouth keeps getting her into trouble and no one wants to hire her, until Aibileen helps secure her a position with Celia Foote, a young woman who is new in town and unaware of Minny’s reputation.

The story jumps back and forth between the three characters, all of them providing their version of life in the South, the dinner parties, the fund-raising events, the social and racial boundaries, family relationships, friendships, working relationships, poverty, hardship, violence, and fear. Skeeter’s mother wants her to find a nice man and get married, but she’s more interested in changing the world. Her plans to anonymously compile a candid collection of stories about the maids’ jobs and the people they work for will risk her social standing in town, her friendships, and the lives of the maids who tell their stories.

I loved this story! The characters really came alive for me, and the author did a good job acknowledging actual historical events which lent richness and authenticity to the story. I laughed and cried, felt despair and hope. This is an important story that is a painful reminder of past cruelty and injustice. It shows how far we have progressed and how much more we still have to accomplish.
...more

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Jun 23, 2011 Jason rated it really liked it

Shelves: for-kindle, 2011, reviewed

“It's true. There are some racists in this town,” Miss Leefolt say.
Miss Hilly nod her head, “Oh, they're out there.”

Law, this book be good! I’m on tell you how good this book be. Everthing ‘bout this book be good, you gone read this book and you gone see what I’s mean. Law!

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Aug 06, 2016 Salome G rated it did not like it

The story itself: This could have really used a better editor. I didn't understand why the boyfriend character was even in there--he added nothing to the story. In addition, Skeeter keeps telling us that Hilly and Elizabeth are her friends but that's just it--she tells us. We never see why she would want to be friends with either of them, Hilly especially. Other characters were equally unbelievable. All the maids are good people and so gracious to Miss Skeeter, save one. Reading their interactio ...more

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Aug 04, 2015 Darth J rated it really liked it

“These is white rules. I don’t know which ones you following and which ones you ain’t.”
We look at each other a second. “I’m tired of the rules,” I say.
-p.155

The Help spins the tales of women of color who worked as housekeepers in Louisiana in the early 1960’s, as told to Skeeter who will chronicle their stories and publish them anonymously in one volume. Her naiveté is shattered when she realizes the back-breaking labor these women do and some of the conditions with which they must endure to ma ...more

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Feb 28, 2016 Reading Corner rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Help is a touching novel that explores the lives of black maids living in the racially unjust, Mississippi in the 1960s, by using the perspective of two black maids and a female, white writer.Minny and Aibileen are the two maids who are close friends and like many other maids, have spent the majority of their life cleaning up after white families and raising their kids.Skeeter is the third character the novel centres around, she fondly remembers her own maid, Constantine but lacks informatio The Help is a touching novel that explores the lives of black maids living in the racially unjust, Mississippi in the 1960s, by using the perspective of two black maids and a female, white writer.Minny and Aibileen are the two maids who are close friends and like many other maids, have spent the majority of their life cleaning up after white families and raising their kids.Skeeter is the third character the novel centres around, she fondly remembers her own maid, Constantine but lacks information about her disappearance and current whereabouts.Her ambition to write and love for her childhood carer lead her and the maids to eventually come together and become invoved in a dangerous project which puts all their lives at risk.

This novel hooked me from the start as it deals with important issues and gives a unique perspective with interesting characters.It looks at the civil rights movement from a different angle as it uses maids who help in a very different way, as they simply describe their work so it can be printed into a book.However, it is not as simple as just telling their story as their eventual willingness to outline their work, immediately puts everyone involved in a threatening position.This danger lurks over all the maids involved for the whole story, creating tension and atmosphere.

The novel switches between three characters,Aibileen,Minny and Skeeter.I loved all of the characters especially Minny as she'll talk back and can be quite funny.Her interactions with her employers and others is a delight to read as she's written so well.All viewpoints are gripping but for me, Minny was definitely the best and I would have prefered if she had more chapters than Skeeter.

I enjoyed Kathryn Stockett's writing as I thought she did an excellent job at creating tension,painting an image and giving the characters complexities.The plot was engrossing as there was never a dull moment and no parts I felt needed to be cut out.

For me, this was a fantastic book which I thought dealt with racial themes and inequality brilliantly.This is a book I would definitely pick up again. ...more

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Apr 25, 2010 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: five-stars, 2nd-favorites, adult-fiction, historical-fiction

Originally, I thought this book should have been retitled The Hype. At least that's what I told my friend. I remember thinking something along the lines of, blah, another story about racism in the old southern days? Must be the chick-lit version of To Kill a Mockingbird. Wow. I was so wrong.

The Help details the lives of three women living in Jackson, Mississippi, right when the Civil Rights Movement began. There is Skeeter, a twenty-two-year-old aspiring writer who terribly misses her maid, Cons ...more

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Jul 19, 2016 Majenta rated it it was amazing

"I know what a froat is and how to fix it."

Aibileen Clark knows how to cure childhood illnesses and how to help a young aspiring writer write a regular household-hints column for the local paper. But she's struggling mightily to deal with grief over the death of her 20-something son, and she SURE doesn't think conditions will ever improve for African-American domestic-engineering servants in early-1960s Jackson, Mississippi or anywhere else in the South.

Aibileen's good friend Minny has been a ...more

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Jan 24, 2011 Tatiana rated it did not like it

Shelves: abandoned, why-the-hype

I don't think this could be any more obvious, trite and cliche-ridden. The book's only aim is to make white people feel better about themselves. Guess it worked. Hence, its bestseller status.

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Jul 21, 2016 Cecily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: canada-and-usa

This is a powerful story about women's relationships with each other, and how they are affected by race (and class), told from the viewpoints of three women (two black maids and a young white woman). It is set in segregated Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962-64, at the dawn of the civil rights movement, but it's local and domestic, rather than looking at the big picture.

The first third of the book establishes the main characters and their situation and relationships; the rest of it revolves around a ...more

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Jun 17, 2009 Lucy rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Gush, gush, gush, gush, gush! I cannot gush enough about this book.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, follows the lives of three women living in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. Two of the women, Aibilene and Minny are black, hired as help to wealthy, or trying to appear wealthy, white families. Eugenia, or "Skeeter" as she is called, is a white woman recently graduated from Ole Miss University and trying to become a writer. She is what probably most of us are, kindly ignorant of the world around her. Rai Gush, gush, gush, gush, gush! I cannot gush enough about this book.

The Help, by Kathryn Stockett, follows the lives of three women living in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi. Two of the women, Aibilene and Minny are black, hired as help to wealthy, or trying to appear wealthy, white families. Eugenia, or "Skeeter" as she is called, is a white woman recently graduated from Ole Miss University and trying to become a writer. She is what probably most of us are, kindly ignorant of the world around her. Raised on what her mother embarrassingly still refers to as a "plantation" she lived in an environment with all the privilege and prejudice you'd expect from a southern belle. Living at home again, Skeeter doesn't quite fit in anymore among her friends, who are all married with children.

When a feminist editor from New York rejects one of Skeeter's submissions, she includes with that rejection the advice for Skeeter to write about what disturbs her. It is while playing bridge with her friends, and she becomes aware of her friend, Miss Hilly's, crusade for every home to have a separate bathroom installed for "the help", to contain the germs blacks carry that whites are more susceptible to, that Skeeter realizes she has found her subject matter.

Skeeter is the least developed character of the three but she is the means in which this uniquely uplifting story can be told. Without Skeeter, who at 22, finally and lonesomely comes of age, The Help would simply be another shocking look at the racial inequality that existed still so recently in the South. It is Skeeter's character, and her ambition to write a book that matters, that strips Aibilene's and Minny's blatantly mistreated, funny and irresistible characters out of their perfectly pressed maid uniforms and into each of our lives.

I don't want to give away too much about Abilene and Minny, who became women I loved. They mattered to me. Aibilene, especially, is so vividly written, that her voice, her mannerisms... her unguarded moments... took solid form in my imagination. More than anything, I wanted her to thrive. To triumph.

As rich as this book is in both characterization and plot, its real accomplishment is that it encouraged me to examine my own prejudices. Racism has always been a frustrating topic for me to think about, as has sexism. My mind has a hard time wrapping around the idea that there was a time when educated people - enlightened people - sincerely believed that any race or gender was superior to another. It seems our spirits must have always had the capacity for understanding that this could not be so, but The Help showed me how such beliefs are possible.

Stockett, a southern white woman herself, exposes this possibility with an experienced sympathy. Using a variety of characters, she demonstrates how many Southerners in this particular chapter of our nation's history weren't racist because they were mean-spirited or elitists, but because tradition and bogus science had supported their belief. Foolish traditions, yes, but they were able to be easily convinced that a separate toilet was not only desirable but necessary because they lacked scientific understanding about germs and contamination and genetics. They only thing available to counter such painfully offensive actions was personal reflection and, perhaps, their consciences.

More so, and what was really eye opening to me, were the attitudes of "the help", and how their own actions and attitudes were also heavily influenced by tradition and fear - as much so as their white counterparts. Whites, with control and power, dosed out injustice after injustice that was defended by their fear and blacks adjusted to the degradation based on their own learning and fear. Minny was taught by her mother how to behave as a maid in the home of a white woman - what to say and do and how to say and do it. She also experienced first hand the consequences of breaking with that tradition, being fired and blacklisted and unable to provide for her family. The difference between what excuses the fear as loathsome or imaginable was the availability of recourse. Blacks had none. Or very little.

I must believe, as a human being, that there is something inside each of us that witnesses the value of our souls. However, blacks, then, had even less access to understanding and knowledge than their white peers which left them with little other than their own consciences as proof of their worth. How frustrating to be human whose freedom is limited by the understanding of others. It made me wonder which of us are like Miss Skeeter, Miss Hilly, Aibilene or Minny. Are we currently kindly ignorant, arrogantly holding all the answers, quietly giving the best of ourselves with what society allows or protecting our vulnerability with a tough outer shell?

Perhaps, we are all of them, at different times of our lives, progressing at our individual rates of enlightenment and courage. As Skeeter explained, "Wasn't that the point of the book? For women to realize, 'We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought'."

Amen.

Now, go read this book! ...more

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Mar 30, 2016 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

The Help is a tale of lines, color, gender and class, in the Jackson, Mississippi of the early 1960s. This is a world in which black women work as domestics in white households and must endure the whims of their employers lest they find themselves jobless, or worse. It is the Jackson, Mississippi where Medgar Evers is murdered, and where spirit and hope are crushed daily. It is the Jackson, Mississippi where Freedom Riders are taken from a bus, a place where segregation and racism are core belie The Help is a tale of lines, color, gender and class, in the Jackson, Mississippi of the early 1960s. This is a world in which black women work as domestics in white households and must endure the whims of their employers lest they find themselves jobless, or worse. It is the Jackson, Mississippi where Medgar Evers is murdered, and where spirit and hope are crushed daily. It is the Jackson, Mississippi where Freedom Riders are taken from a bus, a place where segregation and racism are core beliefs and where challenge to the status quo is met with resistance, to the point of violence. It is a time of political turmoil on the national stage, as the civil rights movement is picking up steam. It is also a place where using the wrong bathroom could get a black person beaten to death.

The Help sees this world through three sets of eyes, Aibeleen, a fifty-something black woman who has taken care of many white children and is beginning again with a newborn. Minny, in her thirties, has troubles enough at home, with an abusive, drunken husband and several children of her own, but her inability to control her tongue has led to a series of jobs and a series of firings. Skeeter is a young white woman, newly graduated from college, and eager to pursue a career in writing. Skeeter has grown a conscience and no longer accepts the presumptions of the past. She yearns to know what happened to Constantine, the black woman who was so important to her as a child. Skeeter sees the unfairness of the social structure. She engages Aibeleen, Minny and a host of other black domestic workers to tell their stories for a book, hoping to expose the hypocrisy and cruelty of Jackson’s white society.

The story not only places the events in historical context, but offers a taste of what it must have been like for the Aibeleens, Minnys and Skeeters of the time. Stockett has created living, breathing characters, people you can relate to, cheer and cry for. If there is softness here, it is that the devils are painted in glaring red, which may be an accurate portrayal of the time, but makes for a melodramatic feel at times. The heroines are fully realized. We get a sense of how they came to be the way they are. While we are offered some background on the baddies, it is not enough to make them as completely human as the three narrators.

The Help is a powerful, moving read, blessed with a colorful, believable cast of characters, a compelling setting and an eternal message of shared humanity, a knockout of a first novel.
...more

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Sep 15, 2008 eb rated it it was amazing

An engrossing, vivid, funny, and important book about three women living in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. Stockett writes in three first-person voices: 1. a middle-aged black maid who specializes in childcare, 2. a hot-tempered black maid who cares for a once-poor, now-rich white woman, and 3. a white girl who's just graduated from college and is floundering around. The Help is "about" race and feminism, but not in an earnest or heavy-handed way. Story is Stockett's first concern, and Jesus ...more

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David R Hello,
I'm a senior in an AP english class and need to write an essay arguing for or against, any book written in the last 5 years,to be considered a ...more
updated Apr 17, 2009 12:31AM

Mary Anne David,

This is probably too late for your essay.

I grew up in the South of the 1950's. The Help is not just a novel; I feel in my heart that it is histo ...more
Mar 04, 2010 05:25PM

Karen I loved this book for the same reasons and I would find myself holding my breath at times!

Even though my mom did not work, she had three kids aged 1, ...more
Sep 28, 2010 10:29AM

Jan 26, 2010 Maggie Stiefvater rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone and their mum. and their barbers

Recommended to Maggie by: everyone's mum and their barbers

Shelves: adult, recommended

So, it looks like THE HELP is turning out to be one of those novels that I love despite flaws. Nearly everyone in the world knows what this book is about (as I pen this review, it is at #2 in Amazon sales ranking) but I shall reiterate: it’s the story of three women -- two black, one white -- in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, and how the two black maids work with the one extremely naive white young woman to write a book of their stories as “the help.”

In the spirit of honesty, I should tell you tha So, it looks like THE HELP is turning out to be one of those novels that I love despite flaws. Nearly everyone in the world knows what this book is about (as I pen this review, it is at #2 in Amazon sales ranking) but I shall reiterate: it’s the story of three women -- two black, one white -- in 1960s Jackson, Mississippi, and how the two black maids work with the one extremely naive white young woman to write a book of their stories as “the help.”

In the spirit of honesty, I should tell you that I didn’t want to read it. It sounded like it was going to hit the Maggie Trifecta of Doom:

1) Fiction that is Good for You
2) “Women’s Fiction”, now with 60% more tears
3) Mint Julep references*

*I have not been thrilled by a single novel that mentions a mint julep. I’m not sure if this is coincidence.

However, I loved it. Despite the fact that the book is massive -- pick it up next time you go by, it’s a doorstop -- I read it in three evenings. It was engrossing, very well characterized and often funny. Strangely enough, two of those are also part of what I consider its flaws. The characters are so reliably themselves that they are nearly caricatures in some areas. While it meant I could definitely never mistake one woman’s voice for another, it also gave it a bit of a Hollywood/ sitcom feel; they were types instead of people. And the funny -- well, race relations in ‘60s Mississippi is not exactly all fun and mint juleps, as everyone knows. But this book is upbeat, uplifting, and ultimately made a bit fluffy by all its humor and optimism. Again, I could imagine this as a Hollywood screenplay in a New York minute.

Still, don’t get me wrong -- it’s wonderfully written and easy to love and very easy to recommend. I also think it would be a killer book club book, because there is a lot to talk about in here, and I don’t just mean the Trifecta of Doom bits. I think that everyone who reads it will at least like it, even if it will not become their absolute favorite in the world. And we need books like that. So go out and read it.

***wondering why all my reviews are five stars? Because I'm only reviewing my favorite books -- not every book I read. Consider a novel's presence on my Goodreads bookshelf as a hearty endorsement. I can't believe I just said "hearty." It sounds like a stew.*** ...more

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Nov 05, 2010 Joanna rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction-21st-cent

I've completed 69% of this book on Kindle, and must wait a week to read the rest. Roger is taking my Kindle to Ireland, so I'll be reading a different "real" book this week.
I LOVE this book, with it being one of my favorite book ever. The Help is well written and well researched, giving unique insight into the black maids living and working in the southern US during the early 60's. As a child growing up in Atlanta, Lillie Frazier came to our house three times a week. She loved and nurtured me in ...more

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Terri I did not grow up with a life like that, nor was I raised in the south. But one thing it did for me, was open my eyes..I liked this book.
Dec 14, 2011 10:49AM

Wynyard I grew up in the east Texas, which was more like Georgia (where my parents came from) in its pine trees, red dirt, and social attitudes. This was in t I grew up in the east Texas, which was more like Georgia (where my parents came from) in its pine trees, red dirt, and social attitudes. This was in the '40s and '50s. We had 'help', and that's really how these women were referred to. We had a cleaning lady, who let me choose my hair ribbons. Then we had an ironing lady, who sang gospel as she ironed. Then we had Ernestine, who was with us until I was in college. "Miss Teenie" was probably in her late teens when she came to us, too young to be a substitute mother, but young enough to become a friend to visit with after school. She taught me to boogaloo.
No, I never heard of a separate maid's toilet. All our friends had help, and they didn't have separate facilities. Our family was certainly middle class, Mother a school teacher and father a railroad middle executive. I thought the author had mixed up her generations. I was married in the late '50s, and the young couples didn't really have maids. I asked my daughter what she thought about that, and the Junior League and bridge club, etc. I said, surely that was my mother's generation...or maybe a FEW of my old high school friends. She said, Mom, they STILL do have maids and do junior league and bridge! Hmmmm. After all the time I've spent with N.O.W. and pushing the glass ceiling. Not such a brave, new world after all.
'Teenie died about 15 years ago. She had visited us when she came through town twice. I have a photo of her holding my grandson. She raised two other girls after me, and came with the family to see them graduate from college. She had no children of her own. When I visited her after I was married, she was living in a tiny poor house, on a dirt road, underwritten by her 'family' (after us). Wood floors almost scrubbed through. Photos of "her children" on the dresser. She deserved much better. I never thought she'd die, and when I learned she'd been taken by her incessant cigarettes and lung cancer, I cried as much as I did for my mother, though a different kind of grief. There are tears even now.

I wonder what she would have thought of "The Help". I wish she and her church friends had written a book. ...more
Feb 12, 2012 02:38PM

Jan 18, 2009 Suzanne rated it it was amazing

Recommends it for: everyone!

This first novel by Kathryn Stockett is amazing. This is one of those few books that grabbed my emotions and interest so deeply that I could not stop thinking about the book when I would set it down to attend to other activities (like eating, sleeping & working!). I was engrossed and couldn't wait to read more, while at the same time savoring every chapter as the story developed.

Stockett makes the characters come to life with her scene and character descriptions; writing in the 'voices' of ...more

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Feb 01, 2016 Evelyn (devours and digests words) rated it really liked it

Shelves: great-characterization, favourites, the-big-screens, messed-with-my-feelings, contemporary, classy-as-hell, non-fiction, hello-reality-you-suck, bagful-of-laughs, characters-i-love

This book tackles the issue of racism (among other things) in 1960's Jackson, Mississippi. I cannot stress this enough but The Help is seriously one of the most important story I've ever read. Since it's about civil rights movement, I first thought it would be boring, depressing and drawn out, but I was wrong. There are so many kinds of moments that made me laugh out loud, tear up, smile, and scowl. I really felt all the emotions here.

The story is told in three different perspectives: Aibileen, ...more

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Nov 22, 2015 Theresa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: my-favorite-books

"The Help" is one of those novels that stay with you. I read this powerful book about 4 years ago. The movie is good but the book is WAY BETTER! Kathryn Stockett is a beautiful and gifted writer. This book is funny as hell, emotionally-charged, and incredibly uplifting (I loved Minny's chapters the best). Have some tissues handy, the ending is a tear-jerker. A must-read! 5 stars isn't high enough. Easily on my list of top 10 novels of all-time. "You is kind. You is smart. You is important." Yes, ...more

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Jun 20, 2016 Kai rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, owned, important

“We are just two people. Not that much separates us. Not nearly as much as I'd thought.”

My favourite book next to Harry Potter. This novel did so many things to me.

There was lots of crying...
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...happiness...
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...sass...
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...more tears...
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...and most of all friendship.
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Read it.

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Jan 06, 2010 Wendy Darling rated it it was amazing

Shelves: adult, hilarious, historical-fiction

This is not the type of book I would normally pick up at all. My book club chose it for a monthly read, however, and I'm so glad they did!

This is a fantastically funny, warm, and fascinating book that I literally read in a day because I was so engrossed in the story. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with all the characters. This is one of the few cases where I can see why the book has been on the bestseller list for ages--it deserves every accolade it's gotten. I've since sent the book to ...more

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Sep 17, 2011 Eric_W rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, current-affairs

This book has a kazillion ratings and reviews so I doubt there is little I can add. I found the story and dialog to be quite believable. As someone who came of age during the sixties I well remember the battles, both physical and verbal, between the “separate-but-equal” crowd and those pushing hard for civil rights. We lived in a suburb of Philadelphia and my mother had a lady come in once a week to do the cleaning. I happened to be home from school one day - it must have been a holiday or somet This book has a kazillion ratings and reviews so I doubt there is little I can add. I found the story and dialog to be quite believable. As someone who came of age during the sixties I well remember the battles, both physical and verbal, between the “separate-but-equal” crowd and those pushing hard for civil rights. We lived in a suburb of Philadelphia and my mother had a lady come in once a week to do the cleaning. I happened to be home from school one day - it must have been a holiday or something - and at lunch I took my bowl of soup and crackers into the dining room with my book (reading, not TV, is the foundation of anti-social behavior) while my mother and the cleaning lady (it still is irksome to use that term) ate in the kitchen. My mother later told me the lady said it was the first time she had ever sat at the same table to eat something with a white woman. (My mother had issues of her own, but they had more to do with educational elitism than race per se, witness her early antipathy to our adoption of several mixed-race children whom she perceived to be a less than stellar intellect. This was in the early seventies when cross-racial adoption was still a rarity.)

Much as I despise religion, I have to give it credit for providing the impetus (at least in the north, but also in some churches in the south) for the civil rights movement. It was distinctly a religious crusade, fostered by the National of Islam under Elijah Mohammed (the so-called Black Muslims,) some Catholic priests like the Berrigans (much to the dismay of their bishops) and many Protestant ministers. Bombings of churches could only lend more credibility to the marchers.

I was attending a Quaker school and remember hearing stories about one family in the Meeting that adamantly refused to permit letting blacks into the Meeting. This was in the fifties. Since Quakers have to do everything by consensus, they could essential block black membership. The issue remained unresolved until the family saw the proverbial handwriting on the wall and moved away.

I read many of the reviews and comments on Amazon and was struck by a couple who thought the book demeaned black maids. I found just the contrary, that if any group was degraded, it was the clique of white girls who, with only a few exceptions, didn’t do anything of worth and cared mostly for clothes, boyfriends, and whether a black ass had sat on their white toilet seat. Some African American readers felt the black maids were demeaned by the book. I find many of these comments quite interesting because I don't think the book is about black maids at all. I think it's about a vapid white culture that is concerned with appearances and boys, and make-up and whether their precious behinds will be soiled by sitting on a toilet that might have been used by a black person. For me, the book ridiculed that white culture and showed how one person made an attempt to cross over and understand the other culture's point of view, but it remains the perception of the white culture at the time so by necessity, the view of black dialect and actions must be a flawed one.

I loved the scene where Abilene is trying to potty-train Mae Mobley and is in a quandary because the child needs to see how adults do it, yet Abilene is terrified to use the bathroom in the white house rather than the colored one built for her in the garage. So she shows her the colored one which Mae Mobley Leefolt then wants to use all the time, to her white mother’s horror.

Yes, there are some anachronistic events, yes, the dialect seems forced sometimes. So what. Outstanding book that reveals the tensions of being black and a decadent and dying white culture in the United States during a period of cultural upheaval. ...more

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Nov 22, 2009 Christine rated it it was amazing

Shelves: audiobook

I'm listening to this as an audiobook and I'm guessing I'm about halfway through, but I feel justified in giving it 4 stars. I might add or subtract a star when I'm done listening to it.

I'm glad I'm listening to this one, rather than just reading it, but I will probably buy the book too. It's written in the first-person, alternating among 3 women in early-1960's Mississippi - 2 black maids and one young white woman who has just graduated from college and is seeing the community she grew up in i ...more

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Jul 18, 2013 Amanda rated it liked it

Shelves: blog

**A few mild spoilers**

I liked this book. I really did. But here's the problem: I wanted to LOVE it. And, maybe, if I had read it before all of the hype, I would have. As it stands, I can only say that it was entertaining, but unexceptional.

Set in Mississippi circa the 1960's, the story focuses on three women: Skeeter, a white woman from a wealthy family who dreams of becoming a writer; Abileen, an intelligent black maid (with a closet love of reading and writing) who happens to work for one of **A few mild spoilers**

I liked this book. I really did. But here's the problem: I wanted to LOVE it. And, maybe, if I had read it before all of the hype, I would have. As it stands, I can only say that it was entertaining, but unexceptional.

Set in Mississippi circa the 1960's, the story focuses on three women: Skeeter, a white woman from a wealthy family who dreams of becoming a writer; Abileen, an intelligent black maid (with a closet love of reading and writing) who happens to work for one of Skeeter's friends; and Minny, a spitfire who has trouble keeping her mouth in check around the white women for whom she works, putting her at odds with another of Skeeter's friends. The narrative is told, in alternating points of view, by these three women who begin meeting in secret to write an anonymous book about what it's like to work as a black maid in Mississippi.

The book is funny, never veering too far off into heart-warming territory, and captures the dividing lines between race and class in the South. The characters are likable and the message is clear, but not overly didactic. And yet, there were a few things that bugged me enough to keep me from giving it a 4 star:

A) Other than a half-hearted stab at dialect, there's little to differentiate the voices of these three women. They have radically different backgrounds and personalities, but these differences seem "told" rather than "shown" in a truly distinctive voice for each character.

B) The character of Skeeter goes through a transformation toward the end of the book and becomes a hippie. The catalyst: hearing Bob Dylan's The Times They Are A-Changing and buying a mini-skirt. That seemed a sloppy and shorthand way of communicating a radical shift in values and perspectives. As a result, I just couldn't buy what Stockett was selling in terms of Skeeter.

C) What happened to the naked guy that Celia beat the holy living shit out of? The police never found him, despite the fact that he was last seen running through the woods with an unhinged jaw and what was apparently quite an impressive member in his hand. Bizarre.

D) Despite the fact that all of this took place during a particularly race-charged time period when blacks were beaten, lynched, etc. for crossing racial barriers, you never really feel like these women are in palpable danger. Even toward the end, things work out a little too neatly for them. Stockett pulled her punches, though she is to be commended for writing about the violence done to others during that time period.

Final analysis: I liked it, I would recommend it, and I would read another of her books.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder ...more

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About Kathryn Stockett

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 for nine years. She currently lives in Atlanta with her husband and daughter. She is working on her second novel.

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Of Love and Life: Love Affairs for Grown-Ups / The Help / Water, Stone, Heart

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“Ever morning, until you dead in the ground, you gone have to make this decision. You gone have to ask yourself, "Am I gone believe what them fools say about me today?” — 1349 likes

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