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Book Description
The Home-Maker describes Evangeline, an obsessively
house-proud mother and home-maker who renders each of her children
miserable in different ways, through her perfectionism and her need to
control; without realizing it, she is frustrated and bored - yet she thinks
she is a good and devoted mother.
house-proud mother and home-maker who renders each of her children
miserable in different ways, through her perfectionism and her need to
control; without realizing it, she is frustrated and bored - yet she thinks
she is a good and devoted mother.
Lester, her husband, is also unhappy, at home and at work. It is only when
he falls off a roof that his family's life changes; he is wheelchair-bound
at home and his wife goes to work in a department store (the setting is
smalltown New England). The children gradually blossom.
Excerpted from The Home-maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
'Oh, Lester, let me do that! The idea of your darning stockings! It's dreadful enough your having to do the housework!'
'Eva darned them a good many years,' he said with some warmth, 'and did the housework. Why shouldn't I?' He looked at her hard and went on, 'Do you know what you are saying to me...? You are telling me that you really think that home-making is a poor, mean, cheap job beneath the dignity of anybody who can do anything else.'...
Mattie shouted indignantly, 'Lester Knapp, how dare you say such a thing! I never dreamed of having such an awful idea...Home-making is the noblest work anybody can do!'
'Why pity me then?' asked Lester with a grin, drawing his needle in and out of the little stocking.
'Well but...' she said breathlessly, and was silent.
'Eva darned them a good many years,' he said with some warmth, 'and did the housework. Why shouldn't I?' He looked at her hard and went on, 'Do you know what you are saying to me...? You are telling me that you really think that home-making is a poor, mean, cheap job beneath the dignity of anybody who can do anything else.'...
Mattie shouted indignantly, 'Lester Knapp, how dare you say such a thing! I never dreamed of having such an awful idea...Home-making is the noblest work anybody can do!'
'Why pity me then?' asked Lester with a grin, drawing his needle in and out of the little stocking.
'Well but...' she said breathlessly, and was silent.
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First Sentence
SHE was scrubbing furiously at a line of grease spots which led from the stove towards the door to the dining-room. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
SHE was scrubbing furiously at a line of grease spots which led from the stove towards the door to the dining-room. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
13 of 13 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is a wonderful novel which is just as relevant today as when it was first published in 1924. Lester and Evangeline Knapp live in small-town America. Lester is a miserable clerk in a department store, and Eva is equally miserable at home. The first chapters of the novel are almost unbearable as we see Eva mercilessly cleaning her house to within an inch of it's life, creating a "perfect" home with no warmth at it's centre. Her children are nervous (except her youngest, Stephen, who is rebellious),her husband is dyspeptic, and her neighbours admire her efficiency while Eva bursts into hysterical tears at the slightest upset. When an accident disables Lester, their roles are reversed. He stays home to keep house and look after the children, and Eva goes to work as a saleswoman in the store which once employed her husband. All the qualities which made Eva such a disastrous housekeeper make her a wonderful saleswoman. The children find their health and happiness improves when their house becomes a home instead of a torture chamber. Lester discovers his vocation in nurturing his family, the relationship which develops between him and the children is beautifully drawn. But, will small-town America allow this bliss to continue? Can the Knapps really be happy in such an unnatural situation? Canfield Fisher's novel is involving on every level. I loved Eva's blossoming in her new career, her enthusiasm was a joy. The author's theme is not just the rights of adults to follow their inclinations and talents, but the rights of children to be brought up in a nurturing environment. Who raises them isn't really the issue.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Persephone Books consistently chooses some of the most amazing fiction to re-print, and _The Home-Maker_ is a stunning example of a novel that's been undeservedly neglected. Dorothy Canfield's book raises some very important questions about gender roles in society, questions which are still completely relevant today. Not only is the book very assertive in its statements about society but it's also a very good yarn. The characters in this book have continued to haunt me after finishing the book and I've re-read the book once already. It's a brilliant, brilliant book and deserves a wider audience.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What an exciting find. I read The Homemaker cover to cover in one sitting, into the early hours of the morning. It's a remarkable book.
Lester and Eva Knapp are profoundly unhappy. He hates his job. She is a prisoner at home. Their children are paying the price, made sick by their parents suffocating misery.
When Lester is crippled by a terrible accident the Knapps' lives seem to hit rock bottom, but in the family's dark time they begin to see.
The Homemaker tells an uplifting story of Eva's discovery of the happiness brought by personal fulfilment and the family's defiance of the restrictive norms of small town America in the new shallow consumerism of the 1920s.
Most moving is Lester's journey from dispirited clerk to talented, loving parent. And the way in which his perceptive understanding of the real needs of his children cures them of their soul-sickness.
For in his accidental role reversal, Lester is allowed to become The Homemaker.
This is a beautifully written book, with characters you care deeply about and who will stay with you long after you have turned the final page.
It is also a profound comment on a society that cannot accept deviations from the traditional roles of breadwinner and homemaker that speaks as forcefully today as it did 80 years ago.
The Homemaker is a domestic Great Gatsby, asking the same deep questions about where America was heading in the early years of the 20th century. It is an unfortunate quirk of literary fate that one should be a revered set text and the other almost unknown.
Lester and Eva Knapp are profoundly unhappy. He hates his job. She is a prisoner at home. Their children are paying the price, made sick by their parents suffocating misery.
When Lester is crippled by a terrible accident the Knapps' lives seem to hit rock bottom, but in the family's dark time they begin to see.
The Homemaker tells an uplifting story of Eva's discovery of the happiness brought by personal fulfilment and the family's defiance of the restrictive norms of small town America in the new shallow consumerism of the 1920s.
Most moving is Lester's journey from dispirited clerk to talented, loving parent. And the way in which his perceptive understanding of the real needs of his children cures them of their soul-sickness.
For in his accidental role reversal, Lester is allowed to become The Homemaker.
This is a beautifully written book, with characters you care deeply about and who will stay with you long after you have turned the final page.
It is also a profound comment on a society that cannot accept deviations from the traditional roles of breadwinner and homemaker that speaks as forcefully today as it did 80 years ago.
The Homemaker is a domestic Great Gatsby, asking the same deep questions about where America was heading in the early years of the 20th century. It is an unfortunate quirk of literary fate that one should be a revered set text and the other almost unknown.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Thoroughly modern dilemma
'She was scrubbing furiously at a line of grease spots which led from the stove towards the door to the dining-room. Read more
Published 10 months ago by booksetc
What a find
I bought this book because of the reviews on Amazon and was not disappointed. This is one of the best books I have ever read and would definitely recommend it.
Published 13 months ago by K. Dance
A modern house-husband's perspective
This novel was a Christmas present from my wife. First published in the 1920s, it describes a couple in which the wife is sharp, business-minded, and going completely potty running... Read more
Published 14 months ago by Geoff Sawers
Traditional Stereotype?
This is the story of Lester and Eva Knapp, married with 3 children, Helen, Henry and Stephen who are trying to live a life by the correct domestic conformity and live in a perfect... Read more
Published 15 months ago by Joanne D'Arcy
A Happy Accident
The Home-Maker is an engaging, poignant and startlingly current novel. It charts the mutual journeys of Evangeline and Lester Knapp as they move (in opposite directions! Read more
Published on 15 Aug 2007 by Ms. A. L. Keeling
Out of the kitchen Mama, Daddy's cooking tonight
Another fantastic Persephone book (Susan Glaspell's Fidelity first hooked me in) by another American author. Read more
Published on 13 Oct 2005 by Sarah Roberts
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