The Help February CC Book Club Selection

SouthJerseyChessMom · February 4, 2010, 12:58pm

^^ I suggested it Monday night as our Womans Club book selection. Was surprised that all but one member, knew about this book, and many are avid readers.

musmom2 · February 4, 2010, 1:17pm

We talked about it (the Help) last month at our book club as a possibility for later this spring- i will definitely push it at our meeting tomorrow (“Truth and Beauty”, by Ann Patchett). Laxmom- we have “A Year by the Sea” on tap for March, a couple of the women have already read it and loved it!

CBBBlinker · February 4, 2010, 6:13pm

Just to chime in – I read The Help a couple of months ago. Based on my recommendation, our RL Book Club is doing it in May. I read “A Year by the Sea” several years ago. There’s also a sequel. Enjoyed both. Have also read and enjoyed “Truth & Beauty.” Bel Canto, also by Ann Patchett, is excellent, too.

Faline2 · February 4, 2010, 8:14pm

wow…this is on our Book Club list this year…we do titles a year in advance…I bought them all on Ebay last evening…second time your book was on our list. We have been meeting for 19 years.

FLVADAD · February 4, 2010, 8:21pm

Bought for DW for Christmas. She’s really enjoying it so far, but I want her to hurry up so I can read it too :)

musmom2 · February 4, 2010, 8:32pm

CCCBlinker: “Bel Canto” is one of my all-time favs! It’s also a good book club discussion book.

Mary13 · February 4, 2010, 11:31pm

^ Another fan of Bel Canto here.

FLVADAD, I hope you can wrest The Help away from your DW before our discussion begins on February 13th!

cpeltz · February 4, 2010, 11:34pm

Bel Canto is one of my all time faves and LOVED The Help when it came out!

irishforever · February 5, 2010, 1:52am

Wow! This is the book we have been reading for our book club in Feb.!! I just finished it last night–LOVED IT!! I could hardly put it down, but didn’t want it to end!

Mary13 · February 13, 2010, 8:31am

O.K. everyone, dust off your copies of The Help, browse through the pages again and let’s discuss!

To begin, I’ll paste a couple of comments made on an earlier thread:

alh:

I saw The Help in the NYT book review and the Huffington Post and then every book-club-belonging friend was reading it. I put it off for so long because, having grown up in the world she describes, it is a really hard story for me and I knew I was going to be very disturbed by the voice. I just can’t understand if she wanted to tell this story she didn’t do as her character Skeeter and make it a cooperative effort. 



Q: Were you nervous that some people might take affront that you, a white woman in 2008 — and a Southern white woman at that — were writing in the voice of two African-American maids?

KS: At first, I wasn’t nervous writing in the voice of Aibileen and Minny because I didn’t think anybody would ever read the story except me. I wrote it because I wanted to go back to that place with Demetrie. I wanted to hear her voice again.

But when other people started reading it, I was very worried about what I’d written and the line I’d crossed. And the truth is, I’m still nervous. I’ll never know what it really felt like to be in the shoes of those black women who worked in the white homes of the South during the 1960s and I hope that no one thinks I presume to know that. But I had to try. I wanted the story to be told. I hope I got some of it right.



Bookreporter.com - Author Profile: Kathryn Stockett

seiclan · February 13, 2010, 8:40am

I loved the book. It was a written from perspectives that I would never have thought of. I was born in 1960 and lived in North New Jersey. I was oblivious of the racial tension of that era during my early childhood.

Mary13 · February 13, 2010, 8:40am

mapesy:

Perhaps it’s because–as in the book–doing so would have great personal repercussions for the interviewees and their families. Although this country has made tremendous racial progress over the past 40 years, we still have a long way to go.

And how do we know for certain that Ms. Stockett didn’t base the characters Aibileen and Minny on real people? It’s certainly possible that she did, but she wants to protect them. I felt all along that Ms. Stockett was telling her own personal story in the voice of Skeeter.

I, too, grew up in that world. Some of my relatives still live in that world. This was a very difficult book for me to read, but I’m so glad I read it. I agree with Ms. Stockett that the story needs to be told, and I think she did a phenomenal job.

The above was mapesy’s response to alh (post #30).

Mary13 · February 13, 2010, 8:50am

I really enjoyed the book. Rarely do I abandon chores and sneak away in the middle of the day to read another chapter of a novel, but with The Help, I did.

I grew up in the midwest in the 1960’s and what was happening in the south was barely in my consciousness. My mother and grandmother both employed the same black “cleaning lady” (to have called her a “maid” would have been considered insulting to her). She came to the house once a week. With seven of us children running around, she did a lot more than clean, you can be sure! We loved her. And we got in her way a lot. :)

CBBBlinker · February 13, 2010, 12:25pm

Same here. I grew up in New England. I guess I have to say the book seems realistic to me, but obviously I never experienced that time period first-hand. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book – liked the story AND the actual writing. IMO, that’s a fairly rare combination in many current books.

mstee · February 13, 2010, 1:53pm

I was oblivious as well as to what was happening in the south, being a young girl growing up in the midwest during this time period. I asked a black woman if she thought the book felt authentic, and she she thought it did.

I felt she got the white characters right. You don’t have to have lived in the south to have experienced women like this!

I found the book to be very moving. I haven’t gotten that absorbed in a story in a long time.

Mary13 · February 14, 2010, 9:50am

Here’s a link to the Reading Group Discussion Guide for The Help.

[ReadingGroupGuides.com</a> - The Help by Kathryn Stockett](<a href=“http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_H/the_help1.asp]ReadingGroupGuides.com”>http://www.readinggroupguides.com/guides_H/the_help1.asp)

I had a couple of thoughts on questions #1 and #2.

I didn’t have a favorite character—which I think is one of the reasons the book was so hard to put down. I’d come to the end two of Aibileen’s chapters, for example, and think, “Oh, I don’t want to switch voices!” But then I’d start the new set, by either Skeeter or Minny, and be just as engrossed.

I didn’t think Hilly was a wonderful mother at all. Yes, Aibileen notes at one point that Hilly sure does love her children, but in my mind, just because you love your children doesn’t mean you are a good parent. Not by a long shot. Hilly sets a terrible example.

Mary13 · February 14, 2010, 9:53am

Here’s the list of questions, in case you have trouble with the link:

Discussion Questions:

<ol>
<li>Who was your favorite character? Why? </li>
<li>What do you think motivated Hilly? On one hand she’s so unpleasant to Aibileen and her own help, as well as to Skeeter once she realizes she can’t control her. But she’s a wonderful mother. Do you think you can be a good mother but at the same time a deeply flawed person? </li>
<li>Like Hilly, Skeeter’s mother is a prime example of someone deeply flawed yet somewhat sympathetic. She seems to care for Skeeter – and she also seems to have very real feelings for Constantine. Yet the ultimatum she gives to Constantine is untenable. And most of her interaction with Skeeter is critical. Do you think Skeeter’s mother is a sympathetic or unsympathetic character? Why? </li>
<li>How much of a person’s character do you think is shaped by the times in which they live? </li>
<li>Did it bother you that Skeeter is willing to overlook so many of Stuart’s faults so that she can get married, and it’s not until he literally gets up and walks away that the engagement falls apart? </li>
<li>Do you think Minny was justified in her distrust of white people? </li>
<li>Do you think that had Aibileen stayed working for Miss Elizabeth, that Mae Mobley would have grown up to be racist like her mother? Do you think racism is inherent, or taught? </li>
<li>From the perspective of a 21st century reader, the hair shellac system that Skeeter undergoes seems ludicrous. Yet women still alter their looks in rather peculiar ways as the definition of “beauty” changes with the times. Looking back on your past, what’s the most ridiculous beauty regimen you ever underwent? </li>
<li>The author manages to paint Aibileen with a quiet grace and an aura of wisdom about her. How do you think she does this? </li>
<li>Do you think there are still vestiges of racism in relationships where people of color work for people who are white? Have you heard stories of someone who put away their valuable jewelry before their nanny comes – so they trust this person to look after their child, but not their diamond rings? </li>
<li>What did you think about Minny’s pie for Miss Hilly? Would you have gone as far as Minny did for revenge?

</li>
</ol>

SouthJerseyChessMom · February 14, 2010, 10:52am

Question 1- I agree, Mary, each character’s story line/ voice was interesting, which made this book so enjoyable. Minny was my favorite character, especially her relationship with the “white trash blonde”- (don’t have the book can’t remember her name).
Did anyone else have mixed feelings about Skeeter? I found her manipulative and self seeking.

Mary13 · February 14, 2010, 2:19pm

I liked Minny, too. I wonder if we could look ahead–if the book didn’t end --how the relationship between Minny and Miss Celia would progress. They seemed to be good for each other. Miss Celia needed some of the backbone and common sense that Minny demonstrated, and Minny needed to be exposed to a loving marriage (a rather odd marriage, but loving nonetheless).

Did you think it was realistic that Minny could be so forthright and indomitable with her white employers, but so submissive where her husband was concerned? Leroy needed a slice of Minny’s “special” pie just as much as Hilly did.

SJChessMom, as for Skeeter, she didn’t really bother me, except that at times her grieving over Constantine seemed to be more about Skeeter’s loss than Constantine’s fate. I know that in a sense Skeeter had to “use” the black women in order to complete her book, but I felt that she believed it was for a greater good, rather than solely for career advancement.

CBBBlinker · February 14, 2010, 3:48pm

I would expand that a little … IMO, Skeeter started the book for her own career advancement, but as she learned more from the various interviews, her purpose shifted more to the “greater good.” Plus, the deeper in she got, the more she saw the “true” side of people like Hilly. Ultimately, though, she did use the book to advance her career and the get the h-ll out of town.

The Help  February CC Book Club Selection

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The Help February CC Book Club Selection