Calamity Club | Kathryn Stockett

I loved The Help, in both book and film form, and I jumped at the chance to grab this off my library's lucky-day shelf. I was ready to love it, but I must say I was rather disappointed. It's historical fiction, which is definitely my jam, and the general story outline and characters are compelling.

My beef? It's too long and too slow, and the ending wraps up so quickly that it wasn't all that satisfying at the end. I mean, you had to know how it was going to end (happily or happily-ish for most of the main characters) but it was a quick, brush-off-your-hands kind of ending. Meanwhile the whole book is over 600 pages long and not a particularly fast read.

There are lots of characters and lots of story lines. It hits hard on the horrible treatment of women in the South, where poor women was institutionalized and sterilized for being "imbeciles," just because they're poor. There's a minor character toward the end who's trying to be a doctor when women physicians are a source of amusement. The book is set in the Depression, so there's a lot of information about how family members are trying to, or are compelled to help their families survive.

I've read a couple of books lately that are just too long, or to be nicer about it, longer than they need to be. I'm curious if there's been a change in philosophy of editors. This would be a stronger book with some judicious pruning of characters, story lines and day-by-day detail.

I think it would or will be a compelling film since the filmmakers would strip the story down to focus on main elements of the plot and the depth of the characters. And I'd definitely watch it!