Kathryn Stockett made waves when her debut novel, The Help, was released in 2009. The book became a publishing phenomenon, spending more than 100 weeks on bestseller lists before being adapted into an acclaimed film. But as the dust settled, a broader conversation emerged about the novel's perspective and Stockett's place in telling a story centered on the experiences of Black women during the Civil Rights era. Looking back on my own reading of the novel, I can see that I was largely swept up in its page-turning narrative and didn't spend much time considering those questions myself.
Controversy aside, The Help was undeniably a cultural force. That's why I was surprised when the years passed without another novel from Stockett. One year became five, then ten, and eventually fifteen. Now, after one of the longest gaps between a bestselling debut and a sophomore novel that I can recall, Stockett has returned with The Calamity Club. This time, she largely sidesteps the racial themes that defined the conversation around her first book, instead turning her attention to a girls' orphanage struggling to survive on the eve of the Great Depression.
The novel alternates between two primary perspectives. The first belongs to eleven-year-old Meg, one of the "big girls" at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum. Meg is smart—perhaps a little too smart for her own good. She knows that older girls rarely get adopted, and she suspects that's why Garnett Pittman, the woman who runs the orphanage, seems to take particular pleasure in making her life miserable. According to Pittman, there’s no future for a girl like Meg. Instead, she spends her days confined to a sweltering, mold-infested office, counting down the years until she's old enough to leave and take a job at the local cannery.
The second perspective belongs to Birdie Calhoun, a twenty-four-year-old woman whose life has been defined by obligation. Since her father's death, she's cared for her mother, grandmother, and the family farm, all while trying to keep their finances from collapsing. Between overdue taxes, mounting debts, and a mortgage they can barely afford, Birdie is running out of options. Reluctantly, she decides to seek help from the one person she least wants to ask, her sister Frances, who left home years ago to marry into wealth and high society, leaving the rest of the family behind.
When Birdie arrives at Frances's grand home, she immediately feels out of place. Indoor plumbing, household staff—it's a world apart from the one she knows. Hoping to mend fences before broaching the subject of money, Birdie agrees to accompany Frances to the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, where she volunteers. There, Birdie offers to help organize the orphanage's books ahead of a crucial state inspection that will determine its future funding. It's within the walls of that orphanage that Birdie meets Meg.
As the two become increasingly entangled in the institution's affairs, Birdie begins to realize that nothing around her is quite what it seems. Beneath the polished veneer of wealth, charity, and religious devotion lurk secrets, ambitions, and cruelties that few are willing to acknowledge. And before long, both Birdie and Meg will find themselves navigating a world that seems determined to keep them in their place.
With The Calamity Club, Kathryn Stockett proves that the success of The Help was no fluke. More than that, she appears intent on telling a historical story that honors the people and perspectives that inspired it without attempting to speak for experiences beyond her own.
Set in the American South on the brink of the Great Depression, the novel portrays a society clinging desperately to the comforts and assumptions of a world that is about to change forever. These are proud people, steeped in tradition and convinced that the institutions around them will continue to endure. No character embodies that mindset more than Frances, who is drawn to wealth, social standing, and the insular world of the churchwomen who volunteer at the orphanage. At the same time, she's almost willfully blind to the realities unfolding around her—from the truth about her husband to the financial instability threatening the very foundations of her world.
Birdie and Meg serve as perfect counterpoints to that perspective. Birdie sees through the pretenses of wealth and status, while Meg brings the sharp observations of a child who has spent her life on the outside looking in. Together, they provide a lens through which Stockett explores class, family, religion, prohibition, sexuality, and the era's changing social landscape.
The result is an engrossing piece of historical fiction that balances its themes with an undeniably entertaining story. At more than six hundred pages, the novel's final act occasionally overstays its welcome, and I found the ending a bit tidier than the story necessarily required. Even so, the strength of the characters carried me through those minor frustrations.
Ultimately, The Calamity Club succeeds because it never forgets that history is lived through people. Stockett uses the past to comment on enduring truths about family, power, and belonging, all while delivering the kind of immersive, character-driven storytelling that made readers fall in love with her work in the first place. It was, in my opinion, well worth the wait.
For more information, visit the author's website, Amazon, and Goodreads.
(2026, 45)
I wonder if the author felt a huge amount of pressure to live up to the success of her prior book? Happy to see this was worth the wait!
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine the pressure she must have felt. It was worth the wait!
DeleteThis one does sound good. I'm looking forward to reading it! :D
ReplyDeleteI think you'll really enjoy it!
DeleteI can imagine hesitating to comeback after a lot of backlash. Sounds like an interesting story though.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure it was a combination of the pressure of success combined with the backlash that followed after all that success.
DeleteI loved The Help, and like you, never thought about it until the controversy hit. I am delighted that this was worth it.
ReplyDeleteIt's a longer read, but very worth it!
DeleteI'm glad that this was a good one for you. I've heard about The Help but haven't read it.
ReplyDeleteControversy aside, I still enjoyed that book, too.
DeleteI did not realise it has been that long!
ReplyDeleteRight? I'm happy she wrote again.
DeleteI didn't realize it had been such a long time between the author's book releases. I'm glad to hear this was worth the wait. It sounds really good!
ReplyDeleteI can see this one making many best of lists!
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