THE CALAMITY CLUB by Kathryn Stockett is many things. It's riveting historical fiction, a powerful narrative about struggling through the Depression, a shocking glimpse into the treatment of women in the 1930s, and a story about the different ways that women fight to survive in a world filled with oppression, denigration and condescension.

To be honest, at over 600 pages, the book is intimidating. But to my relief, the narration by Meg Lefleur and Birdie Calhoun is beautifully done, and we are quickly immersed in their lives and travails. Stockett has differentiated each character's style of narration, so it's easy to know who is relating her story. Additionally, in Meg's chapters, the dialogue is shown in italics instead of traditional quotation marks. It all works wonderfully well.

Meg's narration reads like the thought process of an 11-year-old girl whose mother was not always appropriate in what she shared with her child. When Meg's mother disappears, the nine-year-old almost starves in their secluded small home. Finally, a man shows up and takes her to the Lafayette County Orphan Asylum for Girls.

The chairwoman of the orphanage is Garnett Pittman, and Meg's narrative clearly demonstrates how much Garnett despises Meg. Meg loves classes, so Garnett takes her out of the classes the older girls attend and puts her in a tiny room every day. The room eventually fills with mold, and the one window is boarded up so there is no fresh air. It's Mississippi, and the air in the room is stifling during the summer. Meg sits there day after day with nothing productive to do, which is torture for a bright young girl.

"I think the power of THE CALAMITY CLUB lies in the beauty of the narration, the touching story, the display of the historic mistreatment of women, and the fact that these women hold the power --- even if it's just for a while."

After a brief prologue, where we meet Birdie as she buys a huge number of Merry Widows (condoms) from a local pharmacy, the story begins three months prior. Birdie leaves her home in Footely, Mississippi, to travel to Oxford and ask her sister, Frances, for enough money to pay the back taxes so they can keep the family home. Frances is married to a wealthy man, but Birdie and her family have never met him. They were not invited to the wedding, and Frances refuses to respond to their letters and the rare phone call. So in addition to asking for help, they want to know that Frances is all right.

Birdie is the older of the two sisters and not as pretty. Frances was determined to marry well and convinced her parents to send her to finishing school near Memphis. While there, she met Rory Tartt, the man she married. They live with his mother in Oxford. Birdie, on the other hand, is her family's sole support and works as a bookkeeper at Footely Farm & Mercantile. She is paid half of what the boy who sweeps the store earns because she is a woman. That's just the first of many serious injustices we read about.

Birdie describes the two sisters as follows: “She was two years younger than me and the petite, prissier, cry-her-way-out-of-the-crime sister, while I was the taller, plainer one, but funnier and therefore, least in my opinion, more interesting.” Birdie is also the more intelligent one, thinking about life and injustices and making up her own mind instead of just following the opinions of others. Birdie is kind, generous and a warrior for justice. After a bad case of the mumps, she is told that she will never be able to have children. It is assumed that she will never get married, so her father teaches her to be self-sufficient. She is able to change a flat tire, paint a room and repair plumbing.

When Birdie arrives in Oxford, she sees that Frances lives in a huge, beautiful home. And while Frances doesn't like her mother-in-law, when Birdie meets Mrs. Tartt, they get along just fine. But Frances has not told Mrs. Tartt the truth about her family's circumstances, and she has intimated that they live on a plantation. Birdie's father was a civil engineer, and he had a respectable job, but they are by no means rich. When he died unexpectedly, they were forced to live frugally. While they do get an annuity from his job, it is not enough to cover all their needs and pay the taxes on their home.

Astute readers will quickly understand that all is not as it appears to be with the Tartt family, including Frances' marriage. Mrs. Tartt asks her son about a painting that he sent to the restorer that's been there for months, and he gets noticeably nervous when she says she visited the bank where he works. Meanwhile, Frances is trying to fit in with the society ladies, so she volunteers at the orphanage. Birdie helps out when Frances tells her that they need someone to go over the books before the yearly audit. That's when Birdie meets Meg.

We know from the start that things at the orphanage are not what they should be. When Birdie goes to shake hands with Meg, Garnett stops her and tells her that they don't touch the “big girls.” Meg is 11 and tiny for her age. Frances has told Birdie that Garnett started a work program for girls who aren't adopted by the age of 12. Meg's best friend there, Ava, was sent to a cannery on the Gulf Coast to work when she turned 12. Garnett explains to Birdie that Meg isn't attending classes; she is a bad apple and has been expelled. But Birdie sees Meg's intelligence and luck; she admires her and feels protective of her.

Through Stockett's narrative, we see how tragic the treatment of women was. Frances repeats to Birdie the refrain that the mothers of the children in the orphanage are “feebleminded.” In the Author's Note, Stockett writes that “a law passed in 1928…made it legal to sterilize any person in Mississippi deemed an imbecile.” Included in the criteria were not only those found “insane, idiots, imbeciles, or epileptics, but also the disabled, alcoholics, prostitutes, and sexually promiscuous women.” Feebleminded men, on the other hand, were those lacking in sex drive. Most of the people sterilized were women.

When Meg's mother, Charlie, comes looking for her, Meg is gone. But Birdie promises to try to help Charlie find Meg. By this time, Birdie realizes that the Tartts will not be able to help pay for the back taxes; in fact, they are in dire straights themselves. When Charlie has a plan, as unconventional and daring as it might be, Birdie is willing to try to right the injustices that have been perpetrated on those she cares for, who now include Charlie, Meg and Mrs. Tartt, as well as Frances.

We can feel the Mississippi summer heat and commiserate with the lack of air conditioning. But more importantly, we are able to see life through the eyes of the women --- women of different backgrounds, circumstances and stages in life. There's Mrs. Tartt, who was coddled her whole life and relied on the men around her to take care of her. There's Frances, who was determined to marry well so that her husband could take care of her. Birdie never expected to marry because of her inability to bear children, so she is self-sufficient but also horribly underpaid compared to men who don't do work nearly as important as what she does. Charlie has been persecuted and tortured by men and one extremely vindictive woman. There are other women who have suffered terribly and become a part of Birdie and Charlie's plan. And, of course, there is Meg. Not yet a woman, she is horribly abused.

Do they all get happy endings? No, because that's not how real life works. But Stockett creates an ending that is definitely satisfying and wraps up the whole story beautifully. It's a long book that quickly has us caring about the characters, and because the action is pretty much nonstop, we don't want to put it aside. The writing is lovely, and Stockett's use of metaphor is perfectly on point. Birdie comments, “Already I was building levees to beat the flood of disappointment,” when she meets someone she finds attractive and then thinks it couldn't possibly work out because he's a banker in the middle of the Depression, and she’s unable to bear children.

While I disagree with some reviewers who call the novel funny (although there is often some humor in Birdie's narrative and sharp observations), I think the power of THE CALAMITY CLUB lies in the beauty of the narration, the touching story, the display of the historic mistreatment of women, and the fact that these women hold the power --- even if it's just for a while. It should make you angry at what was done to women who didn't conform and perhaps what is being done to women now.

So don't let the heft of the novel keep you from reading it; you'll race through it. I did. You'll probably love it and think about it for weeks to come. I did.