Customer Reviews

MRS WOOLF AND THE SERVANTS - The Hidden Heart of Domestic Service

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I loved this book; it read like a novel on a topic that is fascinating and eye opening. My mother and her 5 sisters all came to the US from Ireland in the 1920s and worked as servants for the rich on Beacon Hill, in Boston. Their memories always seemed a bit "off" to me and they never really got into details of their experiences (except for one who worked for a very prominent politician), even when probed. They "laughed" about it a little too much, similar to how the servants, many years later, recalled their days in service, and now I understand that was because otherwise they might cry. It also helps to explain why my mother bent over backwards for the people who worked for her. Even though they were there to clean and iron my mother would work along side of them and my father, a doctor, would say "don't stick your nose in the air-these people are the salt of the earth and your bread and butter". There is no doubt in my mind that my mother and aunts had many of the same situations as the servants in this extremely well written book. (If only The Help by Kathryn Stockett had been as informative and well crafted.) I wish my mother was around now because I think I would ask better questions of her. You don't have to be a Virginia Woofe fan, and I am even less now than ever, to enjoy this book.