Sign in with Facebook
Lisa Vegan's Reviews > The Help
The Help
by
by
Lisa Vegan's review
bookshelves: fiction, goodreads-author, novel, historical-fiction, bookclub, reviewed, 1-also-at-librarything, readbooks-female-author-or-illust, z2011, zz-4star
Mar 10, 2009
bookshelves: fiction, goodreads-author, novel, historical-fiction, bookclub, reviewed, 1-also-at-librarything, readbooks-female-author-or-illust, z2011, zz-4star
4 ½ stars
I’d wanted to read this book for a long time, so I was grateful when it was chosen for my real world book club book for our June meeting.
The positives:
I give it an extra half star for the fabulous author’s notes at the end: 1. that she admitted she played around with time though while she mentioned two discrepancies, there was a glaring one I’d noticed that she doesn’t mention, and 2. her biographical information how it relates to the subject matter of this book and why she wrote the book.
The characters are memorable. The story is very smart and funny and poignant. At times it’s hilarious, infuriating, tragic, scary, and the whole premise I found fascinating.
I love the alternating voices, different chapters told first person by three of the main characters, and the one chapter that’s told in third person too.
The book is well written and gripping; I had a hard time putting it down.
The negatives:
A few things about the era are just so wrong. While she mentions a couple of them in her author’s note at the end, I was irritated about them as I was reading the book. And one glaring mistake she never acknowledges. She included events that happened 1 to 5 or 6 years after the events in the book. No need for it! There were plenty of details about 1962-1964 that could have been added and those events/situations that applied to 1967-1970+ could have been left out; they weren’t at all necessary for the story.
At times the characters were a bit too much like stereotypes; I’d have appreciated a bit more complexity re their characterizations. (But, they’re all interesting people so this is a relatively minor quibble.)
Anyway, I really liked/loved this book and think it’s special, brilliant in some ways. At times I loved it and I definitely thoroughly enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t quite perfect enough for me to give it 5 stars.
My favorite review I’ve read so far of this book, proving that pithy reviews (does this even have the minimum number of characters to count as a review?) is my friend Kim’s: “I'm afraid that my grammar done be permanently impaired.� ;-)
I’d wanted to read this book for a long time, so I was grateful when it was chosen for my real world book club book for our June meeting.
The positives:
I give it an extra half star for the fabulous author’s notes at the end: 1. that she admitted she played around with time though while she mentioned two discrepancies, there was a glaring one I’d noticed that she doesn’t mention, and 2. her biographical information how it relates to the subject matter of this book and why she wrote the book.
The characters are memorable. The story is very smart and funny and poignant. At times it’s hilarious, infuriating, tragic, scary, and the whole premise I found fascinating.
I love the alternating voices, different chapters told first person by three of the main characters, and the one chapter that’s told in third person too.
The book is well written and gripping; I had a hard time putting it down.
The negatives:
A few things about the era are just so wrong. While she mentions a couple of them in her author’s note at the end, I was irritated about them as I was reading the book. And one glaring mistake she never acknowledges. She included events that happened 1 to 5 or 6 years after the events in the book. No need for it! There were plenty of details about 1962-1964 that could have been added and those events/situations that applied to 1967-1970+ could have been left out; they weren’t at all necessary for the story.
At times the characters were a bit too much like stereotypes; I’d have appreciated a bit more complexity re their characterizations. (But, they’re all interesting people so this is a relatively minor quibble.)
Anyway, I really liked/loved this book and think it’s special, brilliant in some ways. At times I loved it and I definitely thoroughly enjoyed it, but it just wasn’t quite perfect enough for me to give it 5 stars.
My favorite review I’ve read so far of this book, proving that pithy reviews (does this even have the minimum number of characters to count as a review?) is my friend Kim’s: “I'm afraid that my grammar done be permanently impaired.� ;-)
Sign into Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ to see if any of your friends have read
The Help.
Sign In »
Reading Progress
March 10, 2009
– Shelved
June 12, 2011
–
Started Reading
June 14, 2011
–
21.77%
"So good. So glad I'm finally reading this because of my book club."
page
101
June 17, 2011
–
45.69%
"Should have time to read this weekend, especially on Sunday. Hooray! And see, there are pithy reviews that are great. My current favorite for this book is Kim's: "I'm afraid that my grammar done be permanently impaired.""
page
212
June 19, 2011
–
84.27%
"Don't really have time to read most of the rest of today, except for maybe right before sleep, so I guess I'll finish this tomorrow. Very eager to see how things will go."
page
391
June 19, 2011
–
Finished Reading
Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
date
newest »
newest »
I totally agree with you ... it was terribly annoying that she put in those stupid anachronisms!!! How on earth did her editor allow her to keep them in?? Oy vey. I also agree with your general sentiments on the book. :)
I read it for my real world book club. It had been on my to-read shelf, but I don't know if I'd have gotten to it otherwise. It's a good book club book.
I found it interesting because I was alive then, and remember those times, though I wasn't in Mississippi, and wasn't a maid and didn't have a maid.