The Home Maker
Although this novel first appeared in 1924, it deals in an amazingly contemporary manner with the problems of a family in which both husband and wife are oppressed and frustrated by the roles that they are expected to play. Evangeline Knapp is the perfect, compulsive housekeeper, while her husband, Lester, is a poet and a dreamer. Suddenly, through a nearly fatal accident, their roles re reversed: Lester is confined to home in a wheelchair and his wife must work to support the family. The changes that take place between husband and wife, parents and children, are both fascinating and poignant. The characters are brought to life in a vivid, compelling way in a powerful novel more relevant now than when it was first published. The Home-Maker is one of those "time lost" novels whose recovery will entertain and intrigue whole new generations of readers.  --Midwest Book ReviewThis is a book for every stay-at-home mother who has ever felt guilty for wanting a nine-to-five job, for every father who spends his work days longing to be home with his children. Far ahead of its time in 1924,The Home-makercan still bring light to many who find their frustrations, passions, and dreams revealed in the lives of Evangeline and Lester Knapp. For fourteen years, Evangeline has been a full-time homemaker, pouring her considerable talent and energy into making a perfect house and perfect children, "forced, day after day, hour by hour, minute by minute, with no respite, into the life-and-death closeness of contact with the raw, unfinished personalities of the children, from which her own ripe maturity recoiled in ever-renewed impatience." Lester, on the other hand, is an absent-minded poet, hopelessly ill-suited to his job as an accountant. When Lester takes a near-fatal fall from a roof, however, their roles are reversed. Evangeline becomes a saleswoman - happy, fulfilled, making far more money than Lester ever hoped to - while Lester's paralyzed legs ironically provide him with a socially acceptable reason to stay home and relish the imperfect unfolding of his children's lives. Dorothy Canfield follows the Knapp family's pre- and post-accident lives, shifting her focus from one character to the next, illuminating differences rather than failings, asking for tolerance in a world bound by tradition. Her conclusion is both triumphant and painful, raising as many questions as it answers about individuals and society.-- For great reviews of books for girls, check outLet's Hear It for the Girls: 375 Great Books for Readers 2-14. --From500 Great Books by Women; review by Erica Bauermeister--This text refers to an alternatePaperbackedition.