It is a must read for all working parents and a marvelous present for anyone coping' with work, domesticity, children, and everything else that life throws at one with the proviso that it is not a book to give the over-meticulous since they may conclude that it was meant as a take-home message and be offended.ĭorothy Canfield Fisher (1879-1958) was a superb novelist, a great supporter of contemporary writers, and an advocate of the Montessori method: Eleanor Roosevelt called her one of the ten most influential women in America. Now it is a steady seller and a few years ago we reissued it as a Persephone Classic (with a picture on the front instead of the traditional grey cover). For a while it did not sell: the title is old-fashioned and alas no one in the UK has heard of Dorothy Canfield Fisher, a far greater writer than, say, Louisa M Alcott or Willa Cather but unknown this side of the Atlantic. This was one of the first Persephone books. So the question is can this state of affairs survive? Can the man be the home-maker? Can a woman abandon the children to her partner (as he was not called then) and transform herself into a brilliant businesswoman? Can a couple role swop? Her husband is happier than he has ever been and so are the children. She is so good at her job and loves it so much that significantly she leaves home earlier than necessary every morning and has her breakfast on her own in a cafeteria. Evangeline must become the breadwinner and she is offered a job in a department store, in the dress department. One day Lester, her husband, has an accident and is left unable to walk or indeed work. As a result her three children are unhappy and have psychosomatic illnesses. So much so that she has become obsessive compulsive (the novel opens with her trying to remove a line of grease spots off the floor and that's only the half of it). The heroine, Evangeline, is efficient, good at dressmaking and bored out of her skull. Yet its themes were radical at the time and are still radical today. Soon it will be a hundred years since The Home-maker was first published. The novel they have chosen for July is The Home-maker by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. For a second month running we've asked the brilliant team at Persephone Books an independent publisher based in Bloomsbury to guest write our book club review.
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