The Full Matilda: A Novel [Paperback]

David Haynes (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 11, 2004

Matilda Housewright hails from a long line of venerable and well-respected African American retainers—her family has been in “service” for generations, serving Washington, D.C., politicos and other upper-crust families. The daughter of the indispensable majordomo Jacob Housewright, Matilda grew up in the house of a powerful D.C. senator and learned how to be a hostess extraordinaire—and has perfected the art of service. But after her father dies and she starts a catering business with her brother, Matilda begins to question who she is and what, exactly, she’s serving. Told in the voices of the men in her life, with connecting interludes from Matilda, the reader indeed gets The Full Matilda, a glorious glimpse inside the intriguing life of a captivating woman in the midst of change as she maneuvers through a web of secrets, expectations, and worn-out social mores.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The Housewrights have a family legacy of service, their father, Jacob, having served as the venerable black retainer to a rich and powerful U.S. senator in Washington, D.C. But each successive generation scoffs at the service legacy, gravitating toward the catering business but anxious to drop the subservience of the serving class. Matilda Housewright, the strong-minded and willful daughter of Jacob, provides the focus for this intergenerational novel. After Jacob dies, Matilda's brother, Martin, embarks on a catering business and cuts out Matilda, leaving her on the sidelines. But her impervious nature and impeccable taste keep her at the center of the family as Martin's sons are sent to get the full-Matilda treatment. Alternating between the first-person accounts of Matilda and her brother and the third-person perspectives of Martin's sons, this vibrant family portrait tracks the rise of the Housewrights to a multimillion-dollar food distribution company. Along the way, it traces changes in sensibilities as each generation puts its own stamp on the meaning and manner of service. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"In this era of service with a snarl, The Full Matilda is a tribute to a period past, a time when the napkin was starched, Negroes' eyes were down turned, language was coded, and, nonetheless, progress was made. Fast forward to Afros, police brutality, and interracial relationships, all filtered through Matilda Housewright -- a remarkable maiden aunt with ramrod stiff posture -- and you have the basis for an absorbing read. David Haynes has done a masterful job of depicting the men in Matilda's life. Partly quaint, yet thoroughly contemporary, hilarious and poignant, this book is, throughout, a gem."
--Julianne Malveaux, Economist and Author
The Paradox of Loyalty: an African-American Response to the War on Terrorism

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Broadway (May 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0767915690
• ISBN-13: 978-0767915694
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.8 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #335,191 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars So much more to this book, August 29, 2004

By 

Larissa Amir (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Full Matilda: A Novel (Paperback)

Read this book. You will love it. At the start of The Full Matilda, David Haynes's writing swept me into the world of propriety, power brokers and the servants who ran the true Washington, D.C. in the early 1900s. The story opens from here and reaches all the way to present day. Matilda makes a complex and headstrong narrator for alternate chapters. Her experience throughout the Civil Rights movement creates a counterpoint to the more contemporary chapters narrated by the men in her family. The Full Matilda builds a subtle yet powerful tension between tradition and change which more closely mirrors my own experience as a minority than any other book I've read. With its humor and reverence this book makes me think deeply about who I am and who I owe for the world I live in. This is one of those rare books which can change your outlook.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Haynes at his best!, May 25, 2004

By 

Virginia Martinez (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Full Matilda: A Novel (Paperback)

The Full Matilda is written in the elegant and refined prose of David Haynes, one of America's best literary authors. I loved the comical scenes as well as the bitter sweet scenes that built up to a huge crescendo. Matilda's sacrifice was very disturbing. It was the in-your-face reality of someone in Matilda's position.

Haynes has created a great sense of place that is well grounded in time and space as well as a full fledged family genealogy. I felt the real presence of the Housewright family across the generations and their place in American History.

One of the most remarkable chapters begins on page 320-it is a portrait of the artist as a young man but unlike Joyce, Haynes has ingeniously put it towards the end of the novel rather than at the beginning.

It is very touching that teenagers in their awkward coming-of-age make the time to visit Matilda-the hothouse flower, and that they look forward to spending time with her.

The sprinkling throughout the book of Housewright Maxims was like icing on the cake.

David Haynes's The Full Matilda is a book of substance written in an elegant prose that puts me in mind of Kazuo Ishiguro and Michael Ondaatje. I look forward to Haynes's next work of art.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great Read, May 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: The Full Matilda: A Novel (Paperback)

After reading Haynes' The Full Matilda, I was left just that - full. The author manages to capture all the humanity and quirky personas of his characters with humor but with generosity and realism, so that the book is not merely "funny," it is satisfying. You see all sides of the characters, not just their quirkiness or comedy. Just as Matilda's full range of emotions is tapped, so is the reader's, and the writing is engaging from first page to last. One of those books you're sorry to see end. Read it.