The Calamity Club by Kathryn Stockett
Multimillion-copy-selling author Kathryn Stockett has done it again! If The Help left an impression on your reading life, then Kathryn Stockett’s new big-hearted novel about the power of friendship and unbreakable women bold enough to stand up for their rights, The Calamity Club, is a must-read.
Set against the backdrop of the Great Depression in 1933 Oxford, Mississippi, 11-year-old Meg Lefleur learns the hard way that life isn’t easy and sometimes you can only rely on yourself. After being abandoned by her mother on Christmas Eve, then losing her elderly friend-her only remaining lifeline- she winds up as one of the unadoptable “big girls” at the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum.
Every day, Meg fights to keep her spirit fierce and to hang on to the hope that her mother will return. Despite being isolated by a corrupt orphanage director, this feisty, intelligent young girl doesn’t let her powerlessness defeat her.
Simultaneously, we meet outspoken Birdie Calhoun struggling to keep her family afloat as the depression tightens its grip. Left behind by her sister, now residing as a socialite with her husband’s family in Oxford, Birdie sets out to solicit financial help for their struggling family.
Surprised by the tapestry of lies surrounding her sister’s life, Birdie finds herself entangled in the needs of her sister and her new mother-in-law, as well as Charlie, a forlorn woman who’s down on her luck. Eventually, the fates of these characters converge with Meg’s, and Birdie emerges as the unsuspected link to new beginnings.
As the characters grapple with poverty, systemic corruption, and hypocrisy, you’ll laugh, cry, and shake your head in disbelief as Stockett seamlessly tells this heartfelt story; you may even find yourself cheering.
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