The Help
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In Jackson, Mississippi, in 1962, there are lines that are not crossed. With the civil rights movement exploding all around them, three women start a movement of their own, forever changing a town and the way women--black and white, mothers and daughters--view one another.
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Fiction, New, 2009_02
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Summaries
Add a SummarySet in Mississippi during the 1960s, Skeeter is a southern girl who returns from college determined to become a writer, but turns her friends lives and a Mississippi town upside down when she decides to interview the black women who have spent their lives taking care of prominent southern families. Aibileen, Skeeter's best friend's housekeeper, is the first to open up to the dismay of her friends in the tight black town. Despite Skeeter lifelong friendships hanging in the balance, she and Aibileen continue their plan and soon more maids decides to tell their stories. It turns out, they have a lot to say. Along the way, unlikely friendships are forged and a new sisterhood emerges, but not before everyone in town has a thing or two to say themselves when they become caught up in the changing times
Limited and persecuted by racial divides in 1962 Jackson, Mississippi, three women, including an African-American maid, her sassy and chronically unemployed friend, and a recently graduated white woman, team up for a clandestine project. 464p.
Twenty-two-year-old Skeeter has just returned home with a degree from Ole Miss , but her mother won't be happy until she has a ring on her finger. Aibileen is a black maid , a wise , regal woman raising her seventeenth white child. Minny , Aibileen's best friend , can cook like nobody's business , but she can't mind her tongue so she can't keep a job . It's 1962 , and these three ordinary women are about to take one extra-ordinary step that forever changes a town and the way women-mothers , daughters , caregivers , friends- view one another.
Quotes
Add a Quote“I always thought insanity would be a dark, bitter feeling, but it is drenching and delicious if you really roll around in it.” ― Kathryn Stockett, The Help
I'm sorry, but were you dropped on your head as an infant?
" I might not remember my name but i do remember 2 things. My daughter putting me in a nursing home and you eating shit "
"you is kind you is smart you is important"
this book is very inspiring,the way the three women come together to tell the world how it really feels like to be treated like a slave. please remember that we are all the same no matter what colour our skin is or what shape our eyes are.Never judge a book by its cover......Because we were all born this way!
“Wasn’t that the point of the book? For women to realize we are just tow people. Not that much separates us. For nearly as much as I thought.” “They say it’s like true love, good help. You only get one in a lifetime”. “You is kind. You is smart. You is important”
The summer rolls behind us like a hot tar spreader.
( from "Grady's Gift" [ Howell Raines] inserted by Kathry Stockett , in "Too Little Too Late" : " 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 segretation. 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." Mrs. Phelan : "They say its like true love , good help . You only get one in a lifetime . "
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The Help
Kathryn Stockett, The Help
Be prepared to meet three unforgettable women: 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, Aibileens best friend, is short, fat, and perhaps the sassiest woman in Mississippi. She can cook like nobodys business, but she cant mind her tongue, so shes 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 dont.
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Add a CommentI can appreciate the article that aviself has posted the link to and others should read it too. It is true that this book while good for entertainment value, does not do justice to all the hardships that were faced by hard working black Americans during that time. While this book is good and I enjoyed it, I did not take it for any historical value.
Jan 01/13 - AWESOME book. I thoroughly enjoyed this book; THE BEST BOOK I have ever read. Doctor-at-Bass - 2! M. A. Jan 20/13 - I have to agree with my sister M. A., this was a terrific book. Doctor-at-Bass! T. A.
Consider these more accurate books instead: Fiction: Like one of the Family: Conversations from A Domestic’s Life, Alice Childress The Book of the Night Women by Marlon James Blanche on the Lam by Barbara Neeley The Street by Ann Petry A Million Nightingales by Susan Straight Non-Fiction: Out of the House of Bondage: The Transformation of the Plantation Household by Thavolia Glymph To Joy My Freedom: Southern Black Women’s Lives and Labors by Tera Hunter Labor of Love Labor of Sorrow: Black Women, Work, and the Family, from Slavery to the Present by Jacqueline Jones Living In, Living Out: African American Domestics and the Great Migration by Elizabeth Clark-Lewis Coming of Age in Mississippi by Anne Moody
Highly recommended.
I loved this book and it was much better than the movie.
We read the Help as a book club, and there were mixed feelings about it. Some loved the story of 'the old south', while others were frustrated by the 'wrapped up' ending, and stereotypical characters. Overall it was enjoyed, but those who didn't like it, really did not.
I want to see a non-fiction book of interviews with real people who were the "help" in the South during the 1960s. This book, in which the white author impersonates black women, offends and disappoints me.
People reading this book may wish to be aware of the position taken by the Association of Black Women Historians regarding the information and dynamics presented within: http://www.abwh.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2%3Aopen-statement-the-help&catid=1%3Alatest-news&Itemid=27
The help is such a good book. If any of you want to learn about the slave issue in the South back in the day, i would recommend this book.
Awesome characters and a very real, down-to-earth ending. I grew up in the South and witnessed these types of relationships first-hand. Kathryn Stockett captured the sweet as well as the bittersweet!