"The Calamity Club" | Reviewed by Chris Stuckenschneider

Author Kathryn Stockett returns to the deep South in her new novel, “The Calamity Club.” Stockett’s newbie will be welcomed—another work of historical fiction by the author of “The Help,” a bestseller that spawned a blockbuster movie.

While Stockett returns to familiar territory, the era for her just-released 632-pager, is set years earlier, in 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. It features two engaging protagonists, a stoic orphan, Meg, who withstands incredible mistreatment, and a good-hearted woman, Birdie, forced to shelf her morals to get herself and her loved ones out of financial trouble. For Birdie “the end” seems “to justify the means.”

The book’s title originates from The Calamity Club, a brothel Birdie and another character set in motion—but that doesn’t occur until after page 300—until sections of Birdie’s tale have allowed readers to get to know and care about her. In many ways, it’s a difficult shift to accept because Birdie held great promise but is reduced by the way she promotes prostitution with vague hints of remorse. The heroine’s flaw seems a misstep because we want to continue to support Birdie and her efforts to help those she loves.

Up to the midway point in the novel, Stockett had this reader in the palm of her hand, pages flying and responsibilities set aside. After a brief prologue about Birdie, we meet 11-year old Margo (Meg) as she tries to make sense and survive life at the Orphan. Miss Garnett oversees the Orphan and is cruel beyond measure to Meg, deserted by her mother, Charlie. (There’s a reason for Miss Garnett’s cruel streak, which is revealed much later.) While Meg’s plight is revealed in detail, her backstory provides insight into Charlie, who truly loves her daughter but is a victim of tragic circumstance.

While Meg tries to withstand life at the Orphan, we learn about Birdie, raised in the Mississippi Delta and living with her mother and grandmother. The women grow increasingly worried after Birdie’s sister Frances, who has moved to Oxford, hastily marries a banker. Suddenly their letters aren’t being answered. Birdie’s mother encourages Birdie to go to Oxford to check on her sister, and to ask Frances if she can loan them money, a subject Birdie dreads.

Frances is the exact opposite of Birdie—Frances is spoiled, lazy and entitled. Her goal is to marry rich, which she seems to have done, yet Frances is unhappy. In her free time, Frances volunteers at the Orphan, where she sidles up to mean-spirited Miss Garnett.

When Birdie turns up on Frances' door, she eventually visits the Orphan with her sister and meets Meg, a girl she immediately takes to. Birdie also forms a relationship with Frances’ mother-in-law, who Frances has no time for. Soon Frances will, however, when it becomes apparent she’s having issues with Rory, her husband.

With a novel of this size, it would be easy for a writer less talented and disciplined to lose control of the plot. This isn’t the case with “The Calamity Club.” Stockett balances a number of narratives threads, introducing readers to realistic, colorful characters, many of whom have fallen upon hard times, fleshing out each of their histories and motives. There’s much to enjoy and relish in this doorstopper—a plot that moves and of course lovely Meg, a courageous girl readers will root for, from first page to last.

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