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clellman's review
5.0
Really enjoyed this. Explored themes of gender roles, capitalism, and childhood. Very heartwarming and sweet, but also interesting and thought-provoking. Glad to know about this writer. Makes me want to explore more of Persephone Books' offerings.
shareen17's review against another edition
4.0
This book was written in the 1920s about a couple who are forced to reverse roles - mom has to go to work and the dad stay home. I can't think of many other books I've read as respectful of the importance of the role of parent and home-maker, while also respectful of skills best put to use other places. It's not a surprising plot in any way, but I liked watching the various characters personalities shine when given the right fit.
kirsty's review
5.0
Really enjoyed this interesting book about splitting domestic tasks and paying work. Eva is a full-time mum and homemaker. She's very house proud, copes really well with very few resources (she's able to recycle clothes and furniture to look better than most people's new stuff) and she always has home cooked food on the table. The trouble is Eva is frustrated by the never ending housework and it has taken on such importance that she's missing out on doing things with the kids. She's unhappy (but won't admit it) and is making herself and the rest of the family ill because of it. Meanwhile, her husband Lester has a job he hates and is ill suited to, which is making him unwell.
Fate intervenes and Lester can no longer work so Eva has to. Eva has a job she loves and excels at and is transformed. Lester loves to be a home-maker, focussing much more on the children than the chores (and to be fair he gets some help with chores - partly through charity and then increased prosperity means they can afford some). Lester is happy and the children blossom. Will it last? Read it and find out.
Read it for the ideas about parenthood, careers and equality. Lovely book
Fate intervenes and Lester can no longer work so Eva has to. Eva has a job she loves and excels at and is transformed. Lester loves to be a home-maker, focussing much more on the children than the chores (and to be fair he gets some help with chores - partly through charity and then increased prosperity means they can afford some). Lester is happy and the children blossom. Will it last? Read it and find out.
Read it for the ideas about parenthood, careers and equality. Lovely book
philippakmoore's review against another edition
5.0
Magnificent. An exploration of gender roles in the 1920s which is shockingly relevant today.
hannah_hjs's review
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
amycrea's review against another edition
5.0
This book is about as subtle as a sledgehammer, but given that it was published in 1924, it's an astonishing treatise advocating for breaking down traditional gender roles. And I did not see the ending coming at all, and think it was just right.
sloatsj's review
3.0
This is the story of a married couple back in the day of full-time working class housewives, and how a role reversal between wife and husband gives them and their children better lives all around. The husband, a dreamy literature lover, becomes the home-maker and creates a much more loving and happy atmosphere. The wife, a perfectionist, goes off to work in a department store where she flourishes. The three children benefit because their father, in a wheelchair because of a fall, pays more attention to their personalities than to whether they're dressed neatly or their hands are clean.
The book was a bit overwrought in places, and the father's flights of poetry were sometimes too much (and I'm a poet). But it was a heart-warming story and I shed a couple tears here and there. In the end of course it's a social novel about the straitjacket of gender roles, and the lengths someone will go to to escape them.
The book was a bit overwrought in places, and the father's flights of poetry were sometimes too much (and I'm a poet). But it was a heart-warming story and I shed a couple tears here and there. In the end of course it's a social novel about the straitjacket of gender roles, and the lengths someone will go to to escape them.
readingoverbreathing's review
4.0
"How exciting it was, he thought, how absorbing, to see those first impressions of power and courage touch a new human soul."
This is, again, one of Persephone's most popular and beloved books, and after hearing so much about it, and about Fisher herself, my expectations were high. And I have to admit, right after the delight that was [b:Miss Buncle's Book|1200465|Miss Buncle's Book (Barbara Buncle #1)|D.E. Stevenson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476702810l/1200465._SY75_.jpg|2827104], it did take me a minute to really get into this. It begins not so cheerfully, unlike Miss Buncle and the other Persephone I had read just before it, [b:Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day|916856|Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day|Winifred Watson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1324206344l/916856._SX50_.jpg|2283295], and so I was not really prepared for that shift in tone. By the time I got to the point where I really thought Lester had died, I was almost ready to give it all up, thinking we were on a depressing track to womanly despair.
But I'm thankful I forged on, because that's really where the novels shifts in a new, more hopeful direction. Seeing Evangeline Knapp truly come into her own as saleswoman extraordinaire was an absolute inspiration, and experiencing the tender moments between Lester and the children at home, the success and happiness of their new life, was not what I was expecting, and as I grew to understand the characters better, I also grew to enjoy the story more.
And then we come to the end where Fisher really lays it all out on the table — the impossibility of the permanence of Eva and Lester's new roles in the light of Lester's potential recovery. You wanted so badly for them to carry on the way they had been, but, even nearly a century later, as a part of the same society which resigned them to those roles, you still understand the impossibility of their situation so thoroughly. It's utterly profound.
Fisher's case study of human domesticity, drawn over such a short novel, really is a psychological masterpiece, and I can see why it's a Persephone favorite. It is a reminder to the modern reader that we are not so far removed from the traditions of gender roles as we may think., one with an intuitive touch that leaves a lasting impression even now.
tigerbell's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5