It seems like every blog I read has told me to get The Help by Kathryn Stockett. Usually when everyone is doing something, I go out of my way to point out the negative (it’s one of the more delightful aspects of my personality, I’m sure). With this book, though, I have to agree. It’s really good.
The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi, in the the 1960s. It is told through the eyes of the black domestic workers and the white women they serve.
This subject has been visited in fiction before, but Stockett uses a fresh voice and I believe she adds fresh insight. Some of the mistreatment she recounts was borne out of ignorance, some out of cruelty. And while the black women in the book did wish for things to be better, she does an excellent job of portraying both the feelings of fear and loyalty that kept them where they were. Stockett is a native of Jackson, and she has a wonderful ear for dialect. It’s difficult to write in native dialect without bogging down the reader, but she managed to pull it off.
Recommending books is a tricky thing. A lot of the books that I love fall flat when others try to read them. This is one of those books that I think most people are going to enjoy.
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I loved it and my sister Cindy is reading it and loving it too!
Did I hear that this was her first novel? That impressed me. Especially because of the believable “voices.” I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Di
“Recommending books is a tricky thing. A lot of the books that I love fall flat when others try to read them. ” Isn’t that the truth?
Our library has three copies of this book and none are available before the middle of August! Wow! But if Staci, Donna, Cindy and Di loved it….I just have to read it!
I loved the way Aibileen wrote all her prayers. I was afraid I was going to be preached at in this book, but I ended up loving it.
I was reluctant to put this on my TBR list for a long time because I thought it was actually some kind of self-help book. Then I started reading comparisons to To Kill a Mockingbird and finally put it on reserve at the library.
i’m wondering if one reason the book doesn’t fall flat is b/c the characters are real, they are not caricatures. remember the one “evil” character? there was so much about her to hate, yet the author made a point to show her as a loving and affectionate mother to her children. i liked that. it is one thing that makes so much of our present political discussion difficult…b/c people who differ from us are demonized. then you can’t find anything on which to agree. the other person is ALL bad and NONE of his ideas are redeemable. well, didn’t plan to go there, but did enjoy the book:)
Hi. I found you on the hop and wanted to say hello. Wasn’t “The Help” a wonderful book? I loved it and actually slowed down toward the end because I knew I was going to miss some of the characters. Especially Aibilene. I want to sit in her kitchen and drink tea! Nice to meet you, Dianne
We both loved this book too! No wonder it’s on the best-seller list for so long! Here is a link to our review of it: http://ourstack.blogspot.com/2010/07/help-by-kathryn-stockett.html.
Stopping by from the book blog hop and adding you to our blogroll.
I loved it, too! I could not put it down, and did not want it to end.
I’ve been hearing good things about this too! I finally picked it up for a dollar at a book sale. I’m going to have to bump this one up in my TBR list!