The Help.

[tiredemma]

I was camping at the weekend in North Wales- the weather on saturday was fairly miserable so I went to Smiths to get a book to read to occupy me (and distract me from having to listen to my children arguing over a game of Top Trumps).

The Help was on offer at £2.99 alongside purchasing The Times, so I thought- why not? its cheap enough even if I dont enjoy it.
I also purchased Sarah Waters Affinity which I decided to read first and finished on Monday.

Started The Help last night and literally cannot put it down, which is somethng that I have not found in a book for a long time (think the last time was last year when reading The Kite Runner).

I can't find any other reviews on here which is surprising. I cried and laughed last night- written in such a credible, intricate way.
Has anyone else read it? what did you think????

I bought this just last week but haven't started reading it yet - finishing off something else just now. But good to hear that someone is enjoying it so much! What attracted me to it was I felt it would be like Gone with The Wind but told from the other side - I'm really looking forward to reading it now!

I read this a while back, and thought it was great. Particularly remember laughing at the way the phone conversation went at the beginning of the book when the employer was talking to her friend, in what she hoped were terribly PC terms about her cleaner.

have just read this and passed it on to a friend, I'm normally very shy to pass on a book in case the next person doesn't like it but I thought this was so wonderful! love the characters (apart from Hilly who I wanted to slap hard), for me it portrayed women in such a strong manner.

I can draw so many similarities between that era and the maid culture out here in the Middle East with certain nationalities!

Oh!! I have just realised I was thinking of The Cleaner by Maggie Gee when I wrote the above.
However, by coincidence, I have read The Help - Kathryn Stockett?? and did enjoy it. Loved all the other characters around the main players, and the book got better and better as it went on.
I have seen big ads for the book on platforms at Victoria Station in London. I hear it was a big seller in the US and they must be promoting it at the moment over here.

londonartemis- Glad you cleared that up as I furiously flicked back to the beginning of the book to re-read the convo but couldnt find it!!!

My sil handed me The Help recently and told me to have a read.

I really enjoyed it, couldn't believe it was the authors first book.

I loved The Help, found it a real page turner. The only thing I wasn't so keen on was the pie episode which I thought was unsubtle and unnecessary.

yeeesss... the pie, have seen and smelt my fairly large share of that particular ingredient (I'm a nurse) and I find it a very long stretch of the imagination to understand how you could disguise that!!

Just finished reading it last night. It was a destraction to those vuvuzelas that drone constantly through every bloody match.

I absolutly loved it. Especially the pay back pie!

I beleive there are plans to make it into a film now. It should work well. Glad I read the book first though, they're always better.

was given it as a present and wasn't sure if it was my thing but i liked it - intelligent and funny and poignant...)

think the pie episode would have been funny if the maid had told her there had been a 'additional' ingredient, but not actually done it IYSWIM. That would have been sufficient, and more believable?

I think I agree ellie. It wasn't very plausible and a bit naff. But I enjoyed it otherwise, even though it was an uncomfortable read. I guess it should be an uncomfortable read, as well as funny.

I have just finished it - and I enjoyed it so much!

It was one of those books that begs to be made into a film.

I agree with some other posters, the pie bit was a bit to me too. But apart from that, a rolicking good read!

I loved this book, hence the name change!

Can anybody recommend anything similar?

Great name MaeMobley

I completely adored 'The help', and I'm now reading 'Moloka'i' by Alan Brennert (which was recommended to me by Wheelybug on here!) It's similar to 'The help' in that it's a made up story set in a fairly recent historical background with some great female characters, and it's giving me a similar mix of laughs and tears. It's written in a similar style I think, intelligent but very easy to read... and it certainly has that "Oooh, I'll just read one more chapter..." element about it that 'The help' has. I would say it's just as good a book as 'The help' and would recommend it (and thanks again Wheelybug!)

I've just finished this, as my book club will be talking about it next week and I'm so looking forward to it! A great page turner and I learned a lot about deep South life - scary that these events were in my lifetime and thank heavens we have moved on somewhat.

I too loved 'The Help'!

I loved it so much I snuck out of work and spent ages reading it in the nearest Borders!

I've just read it and absolutely loved it. There were just so many fantastic female characters (the male characters were mainly one dimensional - I think on purpose)

It amazed me that these sorts of things went on as late as the 1960's (even though I obviously knew about Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks etc.). It was just interesting to read about it from a day to day perspective.

I liked the fact that there were some "good" stories in there and, whilst it was upsetting in places, it left me crying and smiling at the same time.