The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett

 

Summary (from the publisher): In 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, Prohibition is on the wane, and the Great Depression is tightening its grip. Poor and rich folks alike have fallen on hard times, even as the old social order remains. For women on the margins, the options are few and the price of dignity and self-determination is unbearably high.

Eleven-year-old Meg, one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum, fights each day to keep her spirit unbowed. Birdie, unmarried and outspoken, has come to Oxford on a mission to ask her social-climbing sister to help the struggling family she’s left behind. And Charlie is a woman with a past, running low on luck but driven by fire, fury, and grit. When their fates converge, they come up with an audacious plan to take back control of their lives. Together, they form an unlikely sisterhood—but in a place and time where hypocrisy is rife, women’s freedom is fragile, and making an enemy can have dire consequences, will the price they pay for their outrageous risk-taking be too high?

The Calamity Club will make you laugh, cry, and cheer—an epic testament to resilience, friendship, and the fierce, funny women who know that calamity can be the spark of new beginnings. This is Kathryn Stockett at her most confident, heartfelt, and hilarious—the triumphant return of one of the most beloved storytellers of our time.

Review: Set in Mississippi in the 1930s, this novel follows two unlikely ladies whose lives intersect during a desperate time in their lives. Eleven-year-old Meg is one of the unadoptable older girls in the orphan asylum and the particular target of the home's uncaring director. Birdie is an unmarried woman who has traveled to Oxford to ask her married sister for money to help out with her family back home. When Birdie gets to know Meg through volunteering at the orphanage during her visit and later meets her mother Charlie, she comes up with a bold plan to help that will help herself, her sister Frances, and Meg and her mother. 

I think fans of The Help will mostly be pleased with the author's new book! While the plot of this one is really different, it has a lot in common thematically, including the historical setting and spotlights on racial and societal injustices. 

I listened to this on audio, which was so well done! It has dual narrators for Birdie and Meg's POVs, which added a lot. While I was initially very intimidated by the length (this is right under 29 hours), this didn't feel like nearly that long and I never got bored or tired of listening. 

What I liked: 

- I liked Birdie a lot. She is scrappy and resourceful and hardworking and very open minded. She tolerates a whole lot from her oblivious and self-absorbed sister. 

- I also really liked Frances' mother-in-law, Mrs. Tartt! She is kinder and more open minded than she originally seems. Loved the tongue-in-cheek last name, which really plays into certain plot developments haha. 

- Meg's whole situation was SO sad and seemed to go from bad to worse. I did really like the whole tangled web of the family she ends up living with and the obvious connections between F. Scott Fitzgerald's and the family's sad decline. 

- This book really leans into the idea of the prostitute with a heart of gold and honestly, I loved it. 

- The plot overall really surprised me and took several turns I was not expecting. 

- Love the female empowerment this book stands for and how women work together in this to help one another (even if I didn't exactly agree with their..work ahem.)

- The ending!! It got me. Really made me emotional. 

What I didn't like: 

- No spoilers here but I did have a hard time suspending my disbelief over the big plan Birdie concocts and how they raise money. Desperate times call for desperate measures, but it seemed like a bit of a stretch that she would go along with this plan or that they wouldn't be caught. 

- I had a hard time buying the connection between Birdie and her love interest Jack. It seemed a bit too instant love and his own back story seemed way too complicated for it to be something that Birdie would have pursued. 

- I didn't get how Birdie could just abandon her job and responsibilities back home for this extended trip to her sister's house. Why didn't she just encourage her sister to go home with her?? I would have also liked more about Birdie's mother and grandmother, who we meet at the beginning and never really see again. 

- I did love this, but I also think it could have been shorter. 

Stars: 4