I am one of those who absolutely loved Stockett’s debut novel, The Help. Yes, it was controversial – a white woman writing in the voices of black women – but I nevertheless thought The Help read very well, told a story extremely compellingly, and was well structured and sympathetic throughout. Stockett’s second novel, The Calamity Club, bears many similarity to her first; it is also women-centric, it is also based in Mississippi, where Stockett herself was born and raised, it also has a protagonist who is an oddity in her own society and time, caring less for female conventions than most, extremely high principled, outspoken, knowing herself to be not physically very attractive and not very bothered by this fact, but still wanting romantic love with a good man; Birdie and Skeeter are very very similar character creations.
However, where The Help was focused on race issues, The Calamity Club is more focused on class and poverty issues. The novel is essentially about Birdie’s need to raise money. Her own mother and Meemaw’s house in Delta needs to pay its backdated mortgages or risk foreclosure, so Birdie comes to Oxford to ask her sister Frances, for help. Frances is married a rich man, Rory Tartt, and at first Birdie thinks they must live in such luxury when she sees how massive their house is. They live with Rory’s mother, Viktoria, and two black women helpers, Polly and Picador. Regretfully, these black women are just props in the story – they are the stereotypical good servants who love their mistress, Viktoria Tartt, who keep the family secrets, who work very hard and loyally….and who appear to have no characters of their own.
Early on in the story, Rory absconds with all the family valuables and leaves his family home remortgaged to the hilt, with no means of repayment. Frances and Viktoria are worried out of their minds about their husband and son, and also about losing their home and everything they have. So Birdie steps in to help, while the two Mrs Tartts go off to hunt for the missing Rory.
The second thread running parallel, with interspersed chapters, is eleven-year-old Meg, or Margot, who is languishing in the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum. This place is run by the sanctimonious and villainous Garnett Pittman, wife of Dr Welty Pittman. Garnett is a leader in her society, but she has her own vendetta because Meg’s mother may have been a poor woman of no account, but Meg’s father is Welty Pittman. Garnett therefore is portrayed as wanting to control Meg and ensure she has no happiness. To that end, Meg is isolated and mistreated in the Orphanage, while her mother is banished to prison for consorting with men of colour. Her crime is being ‘feebleminded’ and she is sterilised, all at the machinations of Garnett Pittman. This dyed-in-the-wool villain is like a bogeyman set up to frighten children, and does frighten Meg, despite the fact Meg is portrayed as super bright, resilient, feisty, with excellent judgement and maturity, desperate for love and affection.
The connection between the two threads is Meg’s mother, Charlie, whose life ambition is to retrieve Meg and have enough money to take her away. Birdie lets Charlie stay at the Tartt’s house in return for domestic help which they sorely need. The story then takes a somewhat difficult-to-believe turn, when Charlie transforms this into a cathouse, a brothel, essentially. She recruits experienced prostitutes, advertises it giving dancing lessons, and Mrs Tartt is only told these women are boarders to help them raise money for their mortgage payments. The whole set up is quite fun to read about, but also almost impossible to believe. The prostitutes are of course stereotypically tough women with hearts of gold, who have all suffered terribly but at stoical and unbowed. It’s all a bit too one-dimensional. Even Birdie’s suitor, Jack, is the perfect man in every way, and works some minor financial miracle to help the Tartts out, which is never plausibly explained.
While it is fun to share Meg’s thoughts, they always seem just a bit implausible; too measured and matured, even for a 11 year old fighting for survival and savvier because of all her bad experiences. That said, it was still touching to see Meg eating her first proper meal after being adopted by the Heidelbergs, after being virtually starved at the Orphanage:
“I cut myself a big triangle of smoked ham and taste it and Mother Mary and Jesus, that is heaven on a fork! Next I try some cream corn, oh it is buttery! And Sweet! And then I am on to the butter beans, then those sweet potatoes, I made sure I and got myself one of those crunchy white things on top. I try the roll with butter and while I am still chewing, I go to the top of my plate and I am back to the ham” (p251-2).
Her verdict?
“Yes ma’am, this food is wonderful. I sure do appreciate it. If I could, I would give it a grade of straight A perfect” (p252)
It isn’t that Meg’s plight is not moving, but it is all a bit too orchestrated; Meg is just presented as too perfect, too darling, too blameless. That said, some of the dialogue and manner of speech, is quite charming and of its period and place.
The novel’s suspense is largely created by Charlie trying to get the money together to somehow retrieve Meg, without getting into even more trouble with the authorities than she already is in. Meg meanwhile is trying not to let herself slip back into the grasp of Garnett Pittman who is of course ever out to get her. Birdie is everyone’s good angel, who knows everyone’s secrets and trying to fight the good fight for all involved and also uphold standards and values. On one level, the novel is written to be heart warming and champion the down-trodden rights of women and children. But on another level, it is a bit too simplistic, the good people are too good, the villain too villainous, and this novel goes on for over 650 pages, which is a bit self-indulgent. Not that it doesn’t read easily, and not that it was not entertaining, but I suspect the author is a lot more in love with her characters than her readers will be.
[For another take on this book, see Susan’s review]
The Calamity Club
Kathryn Stockett
Spiegel and Grau. May 2026.
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