The Help

Jul 28, 2009

Annalisa rated it

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 t...moreHere 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. (less)

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Jul 25, 2010

Sparrow marked it as maybe-not-later

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

Recommended to Sparrow by: Linda Harrison, Gibney

Shelves: reviewed, disturbing, punching-tour

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 ...moreI 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 what they don’t know. I can list you any number of these writers who would be fine if they weren't reaching into topics about which they have no personal experience (incidentally, all writers I'm pretty sure my angry friend loves. For example, The Lovely Bones, The Kite Runner, Water for Elephants, Memoirs of a Geisha, etc.). These are the books for which I have no patience. They’re books that hide lazy writing behind a topic you can’t criticize. The Help is one of these.

You’ve got this narrative telephone game in this book. The telephone game is pretty fun sometimes, and it is really beautiful in monster stories like Frankenstein and Wuthering Heights because they don’t have anything trustworthy or serious to tell me anyway. All of the seriousness in monster stories is an impression or an emotion reflected back through the layers of narrative. I don’t feel that way about the topic of The Help, though. In this book, a white woman writes from the point of view of a black woman during the Civil Rights movement, who overhears the conversations of white women. It's an important topic, and I don't want to hear it through untrustworthy narrators.

So, I can basically get on board with the dialect of the black maids, but what throws me off as a reader is when the black maid is quoting the white women and they’re all speaking perfect English without a trace of an accent. It becomes particularly weird when one of the black maids starts to comment on the extreme accent of one of the white women, whose written dialogue continues to be impeccable. Who is this narrator? Why does she choose not to speak proper English if she can speak it? Why does she choose to give proper English to someone else who she has told me doesn't speak it? Also, usually the layers of narration in a telephone-game book are only within the book. In this case, it’s the author’s voice stabbing through the story. I am convinced it is her whose brain hears the white woman speaking TV English, and the black women speaking in dialect. It gives away the game.

(EDIT: To attempt to be clear, I didn't have a problem that the book was in dialect. I had a problem that the book said, "This white woman speaks in an extreme dialect," and then wrote the woman's dialog not in dialect. Aerin points out in message 111 that I am talking about eye dialect, which is about spelling, not pronunciation. Everyone, in real life, speaks in some form of non-standard English. Though I have seen some really beautiful uses of eye dialect, as Aerin points out, writers typically use it to show subservience of characters or that they are uneducated, which often has racist overtones. If it troubles you that I'm saying this, and you would like to comment on this thread, you may want to read other comments because it is likely someone has already said what you are going to say.)

I’m not finishing this one, and it’s not because I think people shouldn’t like it, but rather because I’m almost 100 pages in and I can see the end, and it’s failed to engage me. When a few IRL friends have asked what I thought of the book and I said I didn't care for it, they have told me that I am taking it too seriously, that it is just a silly, fluff book, not a serious study of Civil Rights. Again, I don’t have a problem with stupid books, but when it’s a stupid book disguised as an Important Work of Cultural History, all I want to do the whole time is tear its mask off. And a book about Civil Rights is always important cultural history to me. Anyway, the book becomes unpleasant; I become unpleasant; it’s bad news. If you loved this book, though, (or, really, even if you hated it) I would recommend Coming of Age in Mississippi. I think that book is one of the more important records of American history. Plus, it’s beautifully written, inspirational, and shocking. It's been years since I read it, so I might be giving it an undeserved halo, but I can’t say enough good things about it.(less)

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Dec 17, 2011

Julie rated it

Shelves: read-2011, usa-historical

I sat down one evening to skim through the first few pages of The Help to determine if I would proceed with a full read. I was immediately hooked and a couple of sessions later I closed the back cover. I didn't have to work hard- this is a compulsively readable novel. That this is such an easy read troubles me. Its subject matter is as heavy as Mississippi in August, but the tone is often as breezy as girls' night out in Venice Beach.

For all the accolades and attention Kathryn Stocke...moreI sat down one evening to skim through the first few pages of The Help to determine if I would proceed with a full read. I was immediately hooked and a couple of sessions later I closed the back cover. I didn't have to work hard- this is a compulsively readable novel. That this is such an easy read troubles me. Its subject matter is as heavy as Mississippi in August, but the tone is often as breezy as girls' night out in Venice Beach.

For all the accolades and attention Kathryn Stockett has received for telling the hidden-in-plain-sight truth of Jim Crow South in the 1960's, I felt cheated by her story-telling. Aibileen and Minny, black women who have spent their lives in service to white families, are portrayed with unsentimental clarity. These women are the real stories, the voices I most wanted to hear. Yet it was as if Stockett didn't trust her ability to carry a full novel in these characters. Instead, she relies on Skeeter - a young white woman who is having a "Eureka" moment of conscience and self-awakening - as the central protagonist. Skeeter is not a compelling narrator and every moment with her was a moment stolen from the characters whose lives should have been the central focus, the eponymous "Help".

In addition, the character of Celia is wasted in a mush of contradictions and implausible behavior. It makes zero sense that a tough-as-nails girl from the hollers couldn't boil water for coffee. Her presence in the plot is inexplicable, as she neither evolves as a character nor moves the story along. Oddly enough, I adored her. I just wish she would have been allowed to grow and participate in the story, instead of remaining its unfunny punchline.

The narrative comes alive in the delicate dance of shame, anger, control and love experienced by so many of the characters, white and black. The real story is rock-solid Aibileen in the Leefolt home as the family cook, maid and child care provider; it is rebel Minny submitting to her abusive husband, determined to keep her family together; it is society-grasping Elizabeth Leefolt, as she feels the desperate tug between convention and her conscience, which struggles to rise from the swamp of racial segregation; it is the deep love between Aibileen and little Mae Mobley Leefolt, contrasted brilliantly with the cold affect Mae Mobley receives from her emotionally stunted mother. These relationships are so compelling, you know that Stockett is writing from her heart, and they are what make this a beautiful read.

The awakening of the women who constitute "The Help" as they tell their stories is also remarkable. But again, the milquetoast and ironically ambitious Skeeter, with her hapless attempts at romance, gets in the way. There is a moment when her motives at gathering and publishing these stories are questioned by an embittered maid, Gretchen, but Stockett drops this in and quickly retreats. It's as if she isn't certain herself who should profit from the telling of these stories, the white woman who can walk away from controversy to a shiny new life in New York City, or the black women who risk everything- their jobs, their homes, their lives- to share the truth.

In the end, I felt that The Help was written with the specific motive of attracting mainstream success. There is potential for a much more profound and revelatory story from this gifted and passionate writer. It made me long for the heartbreaking honesty and poetry of Maya Angelou's I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings and the novel that changed forever how whites told the story of Jim Crow, Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. These novels have withstood the test of history; I don't see The Help holding the same ground.(less)

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Jul 06, 2011

Caroline rated 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; ...more

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Jun 21, 2010

Ellen rated it

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...more

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Candida Lall Some who respond positively to The Help write about it as if any dislike for the book consists merely in a failure of this or that reader to appreciat...more
Dec 21, 2011 07:15am

Rhys Dani wrote: "Although I appreciate your opinion, I have to disagree on the premise of your dislike of this novel. Although I am a young Pacific N...more
Dec 23, 2011 02:03pm

Apr 13, 2010

karen rated it

Shelves: it-is-for-class, littry-fiction

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...more
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.(less)

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Sep 17, 2011

Eric_W rated it

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 some...moreThis 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.(less)

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Aug 11, 2011

Salome G rated 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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Feb 17, 2012

Lora rated it

· review of another edition

Recommended to Lora by: Flannery

Shelves: lib-audiobooks

". . . I think about all my friends, what they done for me. What they do ever day for the white women they waiting on. That pain in Minny's voice. Treelore dead in the ground. I look down at Baby Girl, who I know, deep down, I can't keep from turning out like her mama. And all of it together roll on top a me. I close my eyes, say the Lord's prayer to myself. But it don't make me feel any better. Law help me but something's gone have to be done."

Note: My opinion on this is v...more". . . I think about all my friends, what they done for me. What they do ever day for the white women they waiting on. That pain in Minny's voice. Treelore dead in the ground. I look down at Baby Girl, who I know, deep down, I can't keep from turning out like her mama. And all of it together roll on top a me. I close my eyes, say the Lord's prayer to myself. But it don't make me feel any better. Law help me but something's gone have to be done."

Note: My opinion on this is very much colored by the fact that I listened to the audio and it is like chocolate for the ears.

The Help is a story told from three woman's perspectives: Aibileen, Minny, and Eugenia "Skeeter" Phelan. It is the story of their lives, their struggles, and their attempt to right some of the wrongs that are happening all around them; the ones most people choose to ignore and even partake in. It is about the African-American race and the egregiously awful way they were treated by their employers and the authorites back in the early '60s. It is about one young woman's courageous plan to write a book that could change many lives for the better, or possibly destroy them. It is about speaking out when you are told to shut up; standing up for what you believe in; and, most of all, not being afraid to break out of the mold people see fit for you. It is about life: the good, the bad, the ugly, and the beautiful.

We all know that The Help is outrageously popular, that it is one of those break-out debuts that are highly acclaimed and usually made into a movie (check, check). With this kind of popularity comes both negative and positive reviews; all of which are very vocal, often more so on the negative side. This along with the fact that the audio is over eighteen hours long and that it is commercial fiction made me just a wee bit hesitant to try it. But I'm glad I did.
The Help made me feel joy, sadness, hatred, and hope — sometimes all at once. It is the sort of story that takes patience and a liberal mind to stick with it to the end, but it is well worth it in my opinion. I feel better for having read this story and, love it or hate it, The Help is a story you'll be hearing about for many years to come. 3.5 stars

P.S. Thanks a lot for the recommendation, Flannery. Sorry it took me so long to get to it.(less)

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Nov 05, 2010

Joanna rated it

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 love...more

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Nov 22, 2009

Christine E. rated it

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...more

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Sep 15, 2008

eb rated it

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,...more

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Apr 25, 2010

Thomas rated it

Recommends it for: Everyone

Shelves: five-stars, favorites

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 he...more

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Melinda Mary: All I can say is my best friend lives 1/2 the year in Sattle and 1/2 the year in Tennessee and whenever she is speaking to me she says: When do ...more
Dec 21, 2011 12:37am

Mary Skelton Melinda: Your opinion of the book IS your own and each of us responds to books on a very personal level. I do not usually try and persuade someone t...more
Dec 21, 2011 07:50am

Jun 21, 2009

Laurel rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

This is a wonderfully written book told from the perspective of three very different (but all incredibly strong) women living in Jackson, MS at the brink of the civil rights movement.

Eugenia (known to everyone as Skeeter) is a young white woman and aspiring author who has just returned home from college. At a bridge club meeting with her now married childhood friends, she finds herself troubled to hear of one of these friend's initiative for every household to have a separate bathro...moreThis is a wonderfully written book told from the perspective of three very different (but all incredibly strong) women living in Jackson, MS at the brink of the civil rights movement.

Eugenia (known to everyone as Skeeter) is a young white woman and aspiring author who has just returned home from college. At a bridge club meeting with her now married childhood friends, she finds herself troubled to hear of one of these friend's initiative for every household to have a separate bathroom for the "colored" house keepers, so that whites could be better protected from the diseases some so ignorantly thought they carried. With the mild support of an editor in NY, Skeeter comes up with an idea to write a book containing interviews of the local maids (often referred to as "the help") as they describe in detail their daily lives serving white families. Skeeter slowly secures the assistance of Aibileen, who raised 17 white children throughout her life, and Aibileen's friend Minny, who keeps getting fired because she has a habit of speaking her mind.

Initially, the fear of discovery and retaliation keeps the maids from fully trusting Skeeter with their stories, even though they are promised to be kept anonymous. They (along with several others) ultimately want so deeply for their voices to be heard that they eventually agree to talk, risking their lives to do so.

I fell in love with each of these wonderfully vibrant characters and was moved by the bravery of their plight. The audio version of the book is magnificently read by 3 wonderful actresses who do an amazing job at bringing these rich characters and their stories to life.

The Help is at once charming, heart wrenching, eye-opening, funny, uplifting and empowering. It is also not without flaws, of course. Some of the characters (particularly Miss Hilly) are a bit overly stereotypical, and the ending wasn't quite as satisfying as I'd hoped. However, I felt these flaws to be minor and they did not take away from my overall enjoyment. Overall a wonderfully written, poignant first novel by an author from whom I will be anxious to read more in the future.(less)

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Dec 20, 2010

Harun Harahap rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: punya, terjemahan, fiksi

Novel ini adalah novel yang bisa membuat anda ingin terus membacanya hingga baris akhir di bab penutup. Sulit merelakan untuk meletakkan buku ini walaupun mata sudah lelah. Novel yang sangat menarik tentang kisah 'Hitam-Putih' di Mississippi pada tahun dimana Martin Luther King, Jr. berjuang untuk persamaan hak.

Kisah 'pelayan hitam' pada 'majikan putih' ini mengingatkan saya pada novel favorit saya "To Kill a Mockingbird". Kepedulian segelintir orang pada sesamanya yang berb...moreNovel ini adalah novel yang bisa membuat anda ingin terus membacanya hingga baris akhir di bab penutup. Sulit merelakan untuk meletakkan buku ini walaupun mata sudah lelah. Novel yang sangat menarik tentang kisah 'Hitam-Putih' di Mississippi pada tahun dimana Martin Luther King, Jr. berjuang untuk persamaan hak.

Kisah 'pelayan hitam' pada 'majikan putih' ini mengingatkan saya pada novel favorit saya "To Kill a Mockingbird". Kepedulian segelintir orang pada sesamanya yang berbeda warna kulit diantara sebagian besar masyarakat yang mengatakan bahwa persamaan adalah hal yang mustahil. Seorang wanita kulit putih, Miss Skeater yang pada awalnya kehilangan seorang pelayannya, Constantine memutuskan untuk menuliskan kisah "Sang Pelayan" ke masyarakat luas. Aibileen dan Minny menjadi orang-orang pertama diantara belasan pelayan lainnya yang memberiksan kisah mereka pada Miss Skeater.

Kisah dengan tiga sudut pandang ini memuat tokoh yang berkarakter kuat. Aibileen seorang wanita kulit hitam yang bijaksana dan Minny yang bermulut besar tapi baik hati menjadi perpaduan yang menarik. Ditambah lagi dengan majikan mereka yang karakternya tak kalah menarik. Nyonya muda yang dipimpin Miss Hilly menjadi peran antagonis yang membuat anda ingin mencekik lehernya. Tokoh-tokoh tersebut membuat buku ini begitu memuaskan untuk dibaca.

Tuntutan persamaan hak ini entah sampai kapan akan dituliskan baik dalam buku fiksi dan nonfiksi. Tapi yang pasti bahwa era itu telah ada dan sudah menjadi sejarah. Yang semoga saja tak akan terulang lagi. Amerika kini telah berubah, 'hitam-putih' bisa berjalan berdampingan dan makan dalam satu meja yang sama. Bahkan presiden mereka sekarang pun berkulit hitam. Walaupun rasisme masih ada tapi perjuangan tidak akan selesai sampai hak persamaan tegak di muka bumi. Tak hanya di Amerika saja tapi di seluruh dunia termasuk negara kita, Indonesia.

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word."
<Martin Luther King, Jr.> (less)

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May 03, 2010

Valerie rated it

Shelves: historical-fiction

I don't know what I can add to what already has been said because so many people have read this book already. And yes I'll admit that I read it because I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I couldn't believe how enthralled in the book I was. I didn't read it fast, though I was pretty much hooked after the first chapter about Aibileen. I could just feel the south just oozing out of her words, and you can't really get more south than Mississippi.

The Help stays pretty air-tight...more

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Feb 23, 2010

Becky rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: Anyone with skin.

Shelves: historical-fiction, library, audiobook, the_south, 2010, highly-recommended, political, reviewed, tear-jerkers, to-buy

I'm so, so glad that I gave this book a chance. I've had somewhat bad experience with books that have been hyped as much as this one has, and I generally try to avoid the hyped ones, but for once, finally, here is a book that lives up to the hype and more importantly, deserves it.

I don't really have words to say what I felt was great about this book without sounding cliche. This book was brilliant on so many levels, I feel like I want to start it over from the beginning and listen t...more

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Jul 28, 2010

Joe rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: gift, mlis-book-club

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:

I'm a white person!

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 m...more

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Mar 29, 2011

Nancy rated it

Shelves: audio-books, historical-fiction, made-me-cry, race-relations, favorites, women, library-books

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...moreOne 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.
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Jun 29, 2010

Mia Queen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: hadiah, inspiring, bikin-sesak-nafas

Dikasih oleh sang penerjemah mbak Uci *peluk peluk mbak Uci*
Sepertinya saya memang berjodoh dengan buku ini *lebay dikit gpp ya* dari beberapa bulan yang lalu saat beberapa teman di goodreads membaca buku ini saya sudah tertarik dengan cover 3 burung ungunya itu. Saat beredar buku terjemahannya malah jadi lebih tertarik untuk baca, covernya lebih indah lagi. Gara-gara sudah jatuh cinta inilah, saya tidak berani banyak-banyak baca review, takut spoiler, hehe. Hanya saja dari gambar cover su...moreDikasih oleh sang penerjemah mbak Uci *peluk peluk mbak Uci*
Sepertinya saya memang berjodoh dengan buku ini *lebay dikit gpp ya* dari beberapa bulan yang lalu saat beberapa teman di goodreads membaca buku ini saya sudah tertarik dengan cover 3 burung ungunya itu. Saat beredar buku terjemahannya malah jadi lebih tertarik untuk baca, covernya lebih indah lagi. Gara-gara sudah jatuh cinta inilah, saya tidak berani banyak-banyak baca review, takut spoiler, hehe. Hanya saja dari gambar cover sudah tersirat buku ini bernafaskan isu rasial dan dari browsing sekilas di amazon, rata-rata buku ini dapat 4-5 bintang.

Buku setebal 537 halaman ini terbagi atas 3 kisah.
Aibileen
Sepertinya setiap orang akan menyukai karakter Aibileen. Bagaimana tidak, sebagai seorang pekerja dan pengasuh anak, ia mencintai Mae Mobley seperti anaknya sendiri. Plus ia mengajarkan nilai kehidupan yang dilewatkan begitu saja oleh ibu si anak itu sendiri, miss Leefolt.

Minny
Nah, kalau ini jagoan saya :p
Dari 3 sudut pandang (Aibileen, Minny, miss Skeeter) saya paling suka dari sisi Minny. Celetukannya menyegarkan dan terkadang membuat saya tertawa. Tempramennya meledak-ledak, terlebih lagi ia bekerja di rumah miss Celia yang dongok abis, saya bayanginnya mirip Pamela Anderson gitu (yak, semuanya mirip).

Miss Skeeter, wanita kulit putih yang semakin hari semakin menyadari perbedaan dirinya dengan teman-temannya. Pintar menulis dan bertekad menjadi jurnalis. Diawali dengan kolumnis kecil yang membahas tentang bagaimana cara merawat rumah, padahal ia sama sekali tidak pernah membersihkan rumah. Sehingga ia meminta bantuan Aibileen untuk menjawab pertanyaan di koran dan menjadi dekat dengan Aibileen. Terlebih lagi ternyata Aibileen kenal dengan Constantine, pengasuh kulit hitamnya sedari kecil yang tiba-tiba menghilang dari rumah.

Seiring dengan pertemuan Aibileen dan miss Skeeter yang mulai meningkat, tens cerita mulai tambah seru. Miss Skeeter yang melihat sendiri perbedaan antara kulit putih dan kulit hitam, berpikir untuk menerbitkan buku. Bagaimana rasanya wanita warga kelas bawah bekerja dengan kulit putih? Bagaimana suara hati seseorang yang senantiasa dianggap kotor, rendah dan berbeda? Dan apa sebenarnya yang terjadi dengan Constantine? Kenapa Aibileen selalu mengelak jika ditanya mengenai Constantine?

Yak, kira-kira seperti itulah garis besar buku ini.
Kenapa 5 bintang?
Buku ini seakan memiliki jiwa, saya merasakan setiap emosi di sini. Cinta. Benci. Marah. Sakit hati. Lepas. Bebas. Bahagia. Saya ikut merasakan kedongkolan Minny saat majikannya mabuk dan melontarkan pernyataan tolol. Saat membaca dari sudut pandang Aibileen, seakan mama saya hadir kembali, karena aura keibuannya yang sangat kuat. Aibileen menjadi tokoh favorit dalam novel yang saya baca nih sepanjang tahun 2010 ini. Dan saat miss Skeeter berhasil membukukan wawancaranya, saya ikutan girang.

Covernya, me likey so much. *mbak Anne Mariane, top banget dah*
Mbak Uci, terjemahannya mantab. Sering-sering ya kirim paket ke Bali :p
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Feb 15, 2010

Alison rated it

Recommends it for: everyone, the good people of Mississippi

Recommended to Alison by: Cindy D. and Jennifer L. and many other female friends

"Mississippi and the world is two very different places," the Deacon say and we all nod cause ain't it the truth.

Coming from anyone else, that line might offend, but coming from Kathryn Stockett, former Jackson, Mississippian herself, I have to smile. Cause ain't it the truth.

The Help is the story of a college graduate, Skeeter, coming home to Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's after completing her degree at Ole Miss. Skeeter wants to be a writer, but is encou...more"Mississippi and the world is two very different places," the Deacon say and we all nod cause ain't it the truth.

Coming from anyone else, that line might offend, but coming from Kathryn Stockett, former Jackson, Mississippian herself, I have to smile. Cause ain't it the truth.

The Help is the story of a college graduate, Skeeter, coming home to Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's after completing her degree at Ole Miss. Skeeter wants to be a writer, but is encouraged by a New York City publishing company to write about something more interesting that household cleaning tips.

Skeeter, who developed a close bond with the African Amercian maid who raised her and then inexplicably disappeared, sets out to tell the story of black maids in Mississippi, and uncovers some beautiful, multi-dimensional characters and a wealth of wisom for the reader in so-doing.

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

Written about a time when the word racist had not even been truly defined, due to the status quo of indignities firmly implanted in the times and the culture, The Help goes back to an era when people didn't even fathom that what they were doing was actually an injustice. You'll be shocked, you'll be embarassed, but the beauty of this book is in it's final message...not that much separates us, and kindness knows no lines.

I think what I loved most about The Help (not generally known to be a sap, I cried through large parts of this book), is that it shows how even the persecuted can win just by having their own inner peace. And the ones who think they are winning, because they feel more powerful, or because they have come to manipulate other people and situations, they are actually the ones who suffer. They are the ones who, by having to live with themselves and their unending need for boundaries between people, come to exist in their own private hell. And most of the time they are completely oblivious to the fact.

Which brings to mind some words from another wisom-inspiring passage...

Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. (Matthew 5:7, NIV)

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Jan 18, 2009

Suzanne rated it

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 '...more

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Jun 17, 2009

Lucy rated it

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...moreGush, 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!(less)

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Feb 08, 2009

Jackie rated it

Recommended to Jackie by: Roy L

Shelves: work-review-related-reading, 5-star

This book focuses on 3 women in the early 1960's in Jackson, Mississippi. Two of them are African American (or "negra" in one of the kinder terms of the time) housekeepers/nannies, and one is an awkward white woman, raised by a friend of theirs, who just can't accept the system as it is for ANY woman at the time. She's also trying to break into journalism and a New York editor challenges her to find a story that no one has done before. She chooses to write about her home town from "...more

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Jul 03, 2011

Elizabeth (Alaska) rated it

This was sent to me by a dear online friend, but unfortunately I cannot read it. It opens in the voice of Aibileene, a black housekeeper, who speaks pidgin English, while her white employer does not even have a southern accent. Set in 1962, it is obvious this is going to become a civil rights story. While I will quite agree that this story needs to be told, just as holocaust stories need to be told, in order that we don't repeat the mistakes of the past, I cannot feel good about its trying to do...more

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Mar 12, 2009

Lisa rated it

This remarkable novel is written from the perspective of three women in the early 60s Mississippi. The author grew up in Jackson, where the story takes place, but she's white. Two of the narrators are black. That's part of what makes the story so astonishing -- is how she's able to make each of these characters come to life. The ways in which she does so -- in their language, mannerisms, and thoughts -- is also what makes this novel such an accomplishment. And what we learn about the harsh reali...more

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Mar 17, 2010

Dawn rated it

Recommended to Dawn by: Annette

This is a very good book which kept me up late reading it. Strong, real characters with perfect voices and a powerful, truthful story told so well by Stockett. To say it's about the life of black maids in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960's describes it, but doesn't do it justice. The author succeeds in her effort to show that we are more alike than we realize. I'm very thankful for the brave women and men of the civil rights era who stood up for what was right despite paying a heavy price. ...more

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Jun 23, 2011

Jason Morais rated it

"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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Sep 03, 2011

Debra rated it

Recommends it for: everyone!

Shelves: sai-king-recommends, 5-star-raves

Stephen King says: "You've probably read it. If not, you're in for a treat as you watch Skeeter Phelan, a child of privilege in pre-civil rights Mississippi, get her consciousness raised — and her social position endangered — as she begins writing about the lives of the maids who polish the silver and make the beds. The book is warm, decent, and often funny, but what elevates it — odd but true — are the hundreds of domestic details."

People are raving about this book, and I ...more

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Apr 15, 2011

Maegen rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: audiobooks, disappointments, recommended-to-me

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, then i...more

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topics	posts	views	last activity
Inspiring book!	35	82	5 hours, 21 min ago
What is your favorite character and why?	5	9	6 hours, 31 min ago
Movie vs. book	68	297	14 hours, 59 min ago
missing please help	41	435	16 hours, 58 min ago
What's your opinion of Hilly?	29	144	17 hours, 4 min ago
Read or watch first?	92	240	17 hours, 8 min ago
Did you like or dislike Miss Celia at the end of the book?	61	330	Feb 20, 2012 01:44pm

title link	preview: The Help
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