- Paperback
- Publisher: Penguin Group (USA) Inc. (Jun 2011)
- Language Spanish
- ISBN-10: 0425244296
- ISBN-13: 978-0425244296
- Product Dimensions: 11.2 x 3.3 x 17.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 39,729 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
 Trade In this Item for up to £0.60
Get an extra £5 when you trade in books worth £10 or more until June 30, 2012. Trade in The Help. Movie Tie-In for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £0.60, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Find more products eligible for trade-in.
|
Product details |
More About the Author
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Help" on which the film is based is a page-turner with its skilful coverage of human resilience and the sowing of the seeds of rebellion as prejudice begins to crack in 1960s Mississippi, told through the viewpoint of two black maids, Aibileen and Minnie, and Skeeter, an idealistic but naive young white woman with ambitions to become a writer.
In the film, a strong cast of actors bring to life the key characters in the book. Aibileen is the narrator, compassionate and shrewd beneath her subservient air, until writing about her experiences as a general dogsbody and nanny for a succession of white children finally releases her into a sense of freedom. Then there is Minnie, a brilliant cook, but unable to hold down a job because of her feisty talk - yet she allows herself to be beaten by her drunken husband. The villain of the piece is the ghastly, control-freak Hilly, who rules her simpering white "friends" with a rod of iron, with the power to destroy the livelihoods of black servants (not merely her own!) who displease her.
The film version of "The Help" is true to the essentials of the original in that it is a chastening reminder of the casual prejudice of the American South as recently as the 1960s, and is often very moving, yet the poignancy is leavened with a good deal of humour. In view of the complexity of the book's plot, it has been necessary to leave out or compress many details - thankfully not the scene of Minnie trying to hoover the dust off a huge stuffed grizzly bear in an old colonial house. These omissions tend to be disappointing if you have read the book before seeing the film. In particular, I would have liked more of the very moving tales which the maids have to tell.
The film finds time to show not just the main theme of the humiliation and unjust treatment of black Americans but also the discrimination against young white women, who are expected to have no ambition above hooking a man. Skeeter is hired by the local newspaper, but only to write a column on cleaning!
I found some of the black maids' dialogues hard to follow, which is a pity as in the book they are often very funny and full of insight.
Perhaps the film's ending is a touch too sentimental and neatly "sown up", some of the subtle depth of the original has been lost, but overall it is worth seeing.
In the film, a strong cast of actors bring to life the key characters in the book. Aibileen is the narrator, compassionate and shrewd beneath her subservient air, until writing about her experiences as a general dogsbody and nanny for a succession of white children finally releases her into a sense of freedom. Then there is Minnie, a brilliant cook, but unable to hold down a job because of her feisty talk - yet she allows herself to be beaten by her drunken husband. The villain of the piece is the ghastly, control-freak Hilly, who rules her simpering white "friends" with a rod of iron, with the power to destroy the livelihoods of black servants (not merely her own!) who displease her.
The film version of "The Help" is true to the essentials of the original in that it is a chastening reminder of the casual prejudice of the American South as recently as the 1960s, and is often very moving, yet the poignancy is leavened with a good deal of humour. In view of the complexity of the book's plot, it has been necessary to leave out or compress many details - thankfully not the scene of Minnie trying to hoover the dust off a huge stuffed grizzly bear in an old colonial house. These omissions tend to be disappointing if you have read the book before seeing the film. In particular, I would have liked more of the very moving tales which the maids have to tell.
The film finds time to show not just the main theme of the humiliation and unjust treatment of black Americans but also the discrimination against young white women, who are expected to have no ambition above hooking a man. Skeeter is hired by the local newspaper, but only to write a column on cleaning!
I found some of the black maids' dialogues hard to follow, which is a pity as in the book they are often very funny and full of insight.
Perhaps the film's ending is a touch too sentimental and neatly "sown up", some of the subtle depth of the original has been lost, but overall it is worth seeing.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Every forty or fifty years a book comes along that not only makes readers sit up and take notice while at the same time shaking beliefs we've grown up with. That, to me, makes for a book destined to become an American classic.
For a country that prides itself on human equality, and for this reviewer who was brought up in the idealistic North, this book was a revelation that human inequality was alive and well in the 1960s. Although this story is set in the town of Jackson, Mississippi it could very well have been almost any city or town in the South.
Bent on a career as a writer, Skeeter Phelan (white college graduate)applies for an editor's position with a New York firm. Her ambitions and ideals are high. While she awaits a response she goes about her normal routine: bridge club on Wednesdays, Junior League on Thursdays (she's the newsletter editor), church, and the rounds of events at the country club. Like her peers she has little interaction with the help (black maids) of her friends, although she dearly misses the black maid who reared her while her own mother was similarly occupied with social events. In an effort to win her coveted job, Skeeter is advised to submit something she wrote - something of substance about an idea or philosophy that means something to her. The first thing that comes to Skeeter's educated mind is the inequity of the way in which the black maids are treated.
Set against the background of the racial crises of the 1960s and the very real threat of danger to not only Skeeter's life but that of the black maids and their families, Skeeter convinces Aibilene (the maid of one of her friends) to tell her story. When Skeeter's New York connection reads what she has submitted, Skeeter is asked to submit the remainder (Skeeter lies about having a dozen or so more maids to interview). If the New York publisher likes what she reads, she will publish the book.
Over the course of a year, Skeeter eventually gets her story. Along the way we are introduced to two very strong characters in the guise of black maids - Aibilene (cautious and quiet)and her friend Minny (impetuous and mouthy). On the other side of the racial line are Hilly (white, president of the Junior League, and master manipulator) who is married to a political hopeful and Cecilia (white, low-class, born on the wrong side of the tracks) who is married to Hilly's former beau.
In a seamless blending of viewpoints, Ms. Stockett gives us a rounded approach to everyday life in the South during the 1960s: from the blind acceptance of the white women expecting their black maid to do everything from housework to child rearing to the quiet understanding of the black maids that they are not worthy to share even the same bathroom as their employers.
Ms. Stockett's characters are well-rounded and complex. We learn to love (or hate) each of them and sometimes want to reach out and shake one or two.
A thoroughly enjoyable book that is destined to become an American classic. It should be on the reading list of every book club in America. I wish I could give it more than five stars.
For a country that prides itself on human equality, and for this reviewer who was brought up in the idealistic North, this book was a revelation that human inequality was alive and well in the 1960s. Although this story is set in the town of Jackson, Mississippi it could very well have been almost any city or town in the South.
Bent on a career as a writer, Skeeter Phelan (white college graduate)applies for an editor's position with a New York firm. Her ambitions and ideals are high. While she awaits a response she goes about her normal routine: bridge club on Wednesdays, Junior League on Thursdays (she's the newsletter editor), church, and the rounds of events at the country club. Like her peers she has little interaction with the help (black maids) of her friends, although she dearly misses the black maid who reared her while her own mother was similarly occupied with social events. In an effort to win her coveted job, Skeeter is advised to submit something she wrote - something of substance about an idea or philosophy that means something to her. The first thing that comes to Skeeter's educated mind is the inequity of the way in which the black maids are treated.
Set against the background of the racial crises of the 1960s and the very real threat of danger to not only Skeeter's life but that of the black maids and their families, Skeeter convinces Aibilene (the maid of one of her friends) to tell her story. When Skeeter's New York connection reads what she has submitted, Skeeter is asked to submit the remainder (Skeeter lies about having a dozen or so more maids to interview). If the New York publisher likes what she reads, she will publish the book.
Over the course of a year, Skeeter eventually gets her story. Along the way we are introduced to two very strong characters in the guise of black maids - Aibilene (cautious and quiet)and her friend Minny (impetuous and mouthy). On the other side of the racial line are Hilly (white, president of the Junior League, and master manipulator) who is married to a political hopeful and Cecilia (white, low-class, born on the wrong side of the tracks) who is married to Hilly's former beau.
In a seamless blending of viewpoints, Ms. Stockett gives us a rounded approach to everyday life in the South during the 1960s: from the blind acceptance of the white women expecting their black maid to do everything from housework to child rearing to the quiet understanding of the black maids that they are not worthy to share even the same bathroom as their employers.
Ms. Stockett's characters are well-rounded and complex. We learn to love (or hate) each of them and sometimes want to reach out and shake one or two.
A thoroughly enjoyable book that is destined to become an American classic. It should be on the reading list of every book club in America. I wish I could give it more than five stars.
5 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I had just watched the movie and was told about thr book, so i thought i have to raed this as i loved the movie! So far, the movie is very like the book which is another reason for loving both, it seems they have kept faithful to the story, the down side, i know im going to cry in a certain chapter, im aire everyone who has read or seen this will know which know! Definitely a MUST read!
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
Look for similar items by category
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
