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The Help |  | Author: Kathryn Stockett
Publisher: Amy Einhorn Books/Putnam
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $9.00
as of 3/15/2010 22:55 CDT details
You Save: $15.95 (64%)
New (91) Used (66) Collectible (5) from $9.00
Seller: almostdone3l
Rating:  1790 reviews
Sales Rank: 2
Media: Hardcover
Edition: 1
Pages: 464
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 6.3 x 1.8
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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| Features:
| • | ISBN13: 9780399155345 | | • | Condition: NEW | | • | Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark. |
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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, 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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| Customer Reviews:
Showing reviews 1-5 of 1790
 One of my favorites! March 16, 2010
A. Thompson (Florida)
One of the best books I have read in a long time. I did not want it to end.
Realistic but optimistic March 16, 2010
Rosalind I
I listened to this book on audio. The quality of the narration (it uses several narrators, so each of the main characters has a distinctive voice), and of the book itself, combined to make it the best of the many audiobooks I have listened to over the years. From the first chapter, I was hooked. This was one of those stories you disappear into for a while, and come out of on the other side a little bit changed.
The story of the Civil Rights Movement in Mississippi is full of tragedy and heartbreak, and this book is no exception. But there is such a message of hope here, that people can talk to each other, and things can change. As the book follows Scooter's journey from naive blindness, to a fuller understanding of the often harsh and terrifying reality of the maids' lives, we are taken along on her journey. The author really made me think about how hard it would be to go against my entire upbringing and change my views, if it meant losing family approval, friendship, and love, and finding out things I'd rather not know about my own family history. I also appreciated the complexity of most of the characters; they did not seem stereotyped either by race or by "character type." There were horrible, selfish white employers, but also compassionate and fair ones. Nor were the black characters saints or fearless crusaders, but real people with different personalities, who gained strength and hope through their work on Scooter's project.
A few of the characters could have been more developed: we saw glimpses of the strength and courage of the "white-trash" woman, but I wanted to see her learn and change so she could find happiness. Scooter herself was much less interesting than the other two main characters. But these are quibbles, in an overwhelmingly positive review. Great characters, great plot, and most of all, a completely engrossing story. One I will be listening to again.
The End of an Era March 16, 2010
Chevy Chase Dad (Chevy Chase, MD USA)
This is a compelling and very readable book about life in Jackson, Mississippi, at the dawn of the civil rights movement in the early 1960s. Or, more accurately, it is about life in the waning days of the Jim Crow South, a decade after Brown v. Board of Education, after the reaction had set in but before the real change had taken root. The book transports the reader into a world governed by rigid social (and racial) rules, both written and unwritten. I thought the book succeeded brilliantly both in conveying the mood of a particular place and time, and also in drawing the reader into an engaging and suspenseful plot. I really had a building sense of dread as I read along, and I thought the book had one of the best endings of any book I've read in years -- never an easy feat to pull off. Sure, the characters tend to be one-dimensional (pretty easy to tell who's wearing the white hats and the black hats, as it were), but I still found them interesting and believable. Let me put it this way: I stayed up til 3 in the morning to finish it -- that pretty much says it all. Kudos to the author on her first novel.
Great read! March 15, 2010
Lilly Whitworth (Denver, CO)
This book places you in a completely different time and provides a perspective that many people don't often consider. It was very easy to read, and I loved the characters from which the story was being told. I found myself wishing I could meet them in person and spend time with them. I am amazed and inspired by their courage and confidence despite the times. I highly recommend this one!
Excellent March 15, 2010
L. A. Mueller (Missouri)
I remember the day in American History when I learned what American settlers did to the Native Americans, the sick I felt in my stomach. I remember the day that an 8th-grade Beth, Danica, and Linden recorded a documentary / play about Dachau for the History Day competition, how it really hit me what the Nazis did to the Jews, the homosexuals, the gypsies, the list goes on.
But understanding slavery, the Antebellum South, black struggles in the 20th century, civil rights 60s, even the racism still strong in my lifetime, it did not happen in a flash like those other times. We still sugar coat it. But white people have pretended for years that we were better than black people because of our skin color. That one obvious difference made our ancestors feel like black people were not as smart, carried diseases, were not real humans. White people today still use that pigmentation as an excuse for prejudice.
This saddens me to the point of tears. If you choose to hate someone because their skin color is different from yours, you might as well hate someone who's eye color is different from yours. The difference is about as significant.
All that to say that The Help is an excellent book. I felt the pain of the house help and hated the arrogant, simple-minded, racist white women. It's honest, heart-breaking, and inspiring.
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 1790
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