Customer Reviews

The Keepers of the House (Voices of the South)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I am black and grew up in poor, rural North Carolina in the 50s. I wish I had found this book in the late 60s when I wanted so much to read, hear, and talk with whites about this kind of true life story from the south. Shirley Ann Grau brings her characters to life so calmly and clearly. She writes of emotion, yet she hides much emotion, especially through the somewhat vague and underexposed storyteller-granddaugher, Abigail Howland Mason. The writing is so beautiful, and the story is so sorrowful. I left the ending wondering, not why the rage of the small town when racial secrets are discovered, but why the deep bitterness and anger shown by Abigail and her half-black, half-white kin. Yes, the south was - and in some respects remains - a cruel and contented place, and yes, people can be coarse and ugly, but in my heart I longed to see some sign of reconciliation.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys fine language and is drawn to the exploration of love and hate, conformists and nonconformists, parents and children, greed and grace from a southern perspective. Ms. Grau deserved the Pulitzer in 1965 and I am glad I found her at last in 2001.

What a fascinating read!! The Keepers Of The House is a marvelous book that I spent an entire Sunday reading, from cover to cover. It tells the story of William Howland, a wealthy white landowner, and Margaret Carmichael, a black woman who becomes his maid, and the love that they shared, along with the choses and consequences their love would bring. The story is told by William's grandaughter Abigail Howland Mason, in a long line of Abigails. She narrates this tale, William's and Margaret's history, how they met, their children and how they lived. She also tells how years later the marriage of William and Margaret affects her life. Grau tells the story of forbidden love and revenge that is laced with racism extraordinarily well. Even though throughout the book the reader is aware that the narrator is Abigail, it doesn't hinder the essence of William and Margaret. The soul of the characters are exposed. A very well written book. I know of no better way of spending a Sunday!!

If you have ever read about life in the south under segretation, you have an idea about how difficult things were for African Americans and how tense things were for whites.
Ms. Grau won a Pulitzer for this book in 1965 for her fascinating story of a wealthy family and the scandal that arises when the truth comes out that the founding father was married to his mulatto housekeeper and had children with her after his first wife died.

The intense human emotions, the political climate, the social temper and environment is the backdrop to the amazing character development that is the heart of all of Ms Grau's work. Truly one of America's most talented writers- her work deserves notice and study. Her writing style has a lyrical quality, it flows and builds. I find it impossible to put her books down- the quality of the writing, the interesting characters and the intensity of her storytelling is irresistible.

The Keepers of the House is a must for anyone who considers themselves a true bibliophile!

This book presents a very interesting insight into Southern values, particulary those related to class and race. I sometimes found the detailed descriptive style to be boring, tedious, and much too wordy. Further, the second part of the book after the main character, Abigail Howland, marries seemed to be presented as a very overdone, too obvious parody of a rich, upscale Southern family; i.e. the ponies for the children, the butler, the pearls, the fur coat...... O.K. I've got the idea- could you tone it down? The difference in style between the somewhat understated first part and overstated second part of the book was disconcerting.

But- the insight into Southern values relating to race and class was fascinating. The startling ways in which the emotions (jealousy, revenge, hypocrisy, love, hatred, loyalty, and betrayal ) of the Howland family members were portrayed made it difficult to put the book down. Also, the message of Abigail Howland's enduring strength was inspiring (even if you don't believe in "getting even"). All in all a good book, but stylistically sometimes difficult.

The proses in this book are extraordinary. Grau knows the land, the plants, the animals, the smells and the sensibility of the place she writes about so the reader can feel like s/he is walking down that rural road with her as she describes a place. There is something of a touch of Annie Dillard in Grau --the way she loves the natural world. And then there are the people who inhabit the places she describes...they are shaped by but different from the land that the Howland family inhabits, owns, nurtures and has grown a part of without fanfare or intention. The Howlands are a people who know and remember their history and where they live is part of who they are. As Grau builds this story, she gently introduces us to layer upon layer of the complex mix out of which racism grew and festered and which distorted the world, so that our narrator eventually ends up in the fetal position on the floor trying to fend off, alone the ugliness of a racist society full of people who use each other ruthlessly...a society that turns the narrator herself into a less than perfect character. This is a pulls-no-punches story. It is the kind of book people ought to talk about after they read. It is full of who we are as a nation-and it could help us find our way out of the mess we've made for ourselves.

I saw this book advertised and picked it up from the library. I cannot put the book down! I miss the characters so very much when I'm away from the book - my husband must think I'm insane! Now I have put this on my wish list as I need to purchase it to have for my daughter to read when she's old enough (she's only 3!). By all means get a hold of this book.

I strongly recommend this book. There are some characters in literature that I find admirable and this book contains several of them. The central characters in this book show great strength and resiliency. The story covers several generations, so it requires a bit of patience on the part of the reader. At one point, I briefly felt that the story was dragging a bit. The ending, however, makes it well worth the read. It is a very thought-provoking book. It certainly deserves the acclaim it has received.

I read The Keepers of the House years ago (found it in a used book store), loaned it out and never got it back. I have been looking for it ever since and just found it on the Internet. I am so excited! It is a treasure for the lover of books about the South. It has been a long time since I read it but I can still smell the wet leaves at the spring. I am looking forward to reading it and savoring it all over again. If anyone hasn't read it, take it from me: It is a wonderfrul experience.

This book won a Pulitzer Prize, so one expects fine writing. But would a book about race in the South written more than 40 years ago --- at the time of the I Have a Dream Speech --- seem like more than an historical relic today? With Keepers of the House, the answer is definitely yes.

To begin with, Grau's spare, strong prose collects no cobwebs. It reads hard and clear 40 years later and will do so 100 years later. At the same time, she spins out her generational tale languidly and enigmatically. A relatively unimportant event (plot wise) can receive multipage treatment, and a critical event a few sentences. The pacing keeps the reader on her toes.

Moreover, though race pervades every portion of the book, it is not a story just about race. It covers much more: love, loss, parent-child relations; male-female relations (almost protofeminist at points); the rural south; whiskey manufacture; coming of age . . . there is a lot in here to grab the heart and the mind, much more than its statement about the destructive power of racial hypocrisy.

On the negative side, in its treatment of mixed race offspring and racial passing, the racist caricature of the "tragic mulatto" makes an appearance. (Check out this link if you are not familiar with the myth of the Tragic Mulatto: www.ferris.edu/jimcrow/mulatto). Although the book twists the traditional myth by, apparently, suggesting passing as the better course --- the characters who are set up to pass and stray from that path are condemned for it --- the message that racial mixing leads to tragedy comes through, albeit with the author's regrets.

That treatment certainly makes the book anachronistic as a "progressive viewpoint," and would understandbly play a role in its lack of prominence today. I would not prescribe it for a high school curriculum. It did not "spoil" the book for me, however, for two reasons.

First, while I "rooted" for the narrator and cheered for her during times of violent confrontation, I didn't really like her, so that her beliefs came across much less as the message of the book. Instead, she is just another flawed character of the time. Those beliefs are part, but only a part, of what one doesn't like about her. I don't know if she seemed more of a straightforward heroine when the book was written, but she certainly doesn't now.

Second, the core of the book is really the love story between the narrator's Grandfather and his housekeeper --- the interracial connection that drives the entire tale. The depiction of that relationship, far from perfect or idealized (though not portrayed either as the product of rape or powerlessness which would have been a real, but different, story) rang so true and was set out with such acceptance that, for me at least, it excused some of the bumps.

Finally, I should add that, although the story builds slowly, it does build. By the last quarter or so, I was in "can't put it down" mode.

This book is slow-moving at first, but has an excellent ending. It's all about ignorance, patience, and revenge. It reads like a true story, but it makes me wonder...is it?