Biting the Dust: The Joys of Housework

This book changed my life - in fact I had to order a back up copy because I literally wore my first hardcover copy out with repeated (to this very day) reading of it. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to Ms. Horsfield for her most important contribution to the world with this book. I'll sum it up with, thank you and God bless - you changed my life and I'm so happy I discovered this book. It gave my life a clarity and a focus that was sorely lacking.

I thought this book was pretty good. Horsfield never gets preachy and remains amusing, which is probably what makes the book work. Whenever someone saw me reading this book, they kind of turned their nose up and asked, "What's there to say about cleaning your house?" Surprisingly a lot. Horsfield really approaches the issue from all different angles so it doesn't get boring. Admittedly, in some places the examples were a bit too exhaustive, but that was fine - I just skipped a few paragraphs and then carried on. I particularly liked her critique of others' books on housework, both historical and contemporary, mocking how "experts" have tried to declare from above how we should maintain our homes. Horsfield admits to being halfway between a lazy housekeeper and a crazed cleaner and her autobiographical anecdotes, as well as those from the outer edges of the spectrum were pretty amusing. Twice while reading I had to put the book down and go clean something - the first time to bleach my countertops, the second time to scrub my toilet. The rest of the time, however, I enjoyed reading this book while willfully ignoring my barely maintained apartment. Shows what kind of cleaner I am.

BITING THE DUST is the best non-fiction book I have read this year. It is a tongue-in-cheek look at the social history of cleaning. It traces the path that lead to our obsession (whether we clean or not) with cleaning; explaining how marketers and self appointed moral police made a clean home to not just be something to strive for, but women's moral duty to achieve. Horsefield explains how marketers and proponents of home economics (itself a misogynistic and idiotic construct) used the idea of teeny-tiny germs to enslave a couple of generations of women. All right, that last bit was a tad over dramatic, but you get this picture. The narrative is fascinating and informative. It was great fun to read and I highly recommend it.

The best non-fiction that I have read this year. Biting the dust is a tongue-in-cheek look at the social history of cleaning. It traces the path that lead to our obsession (whether we clean or not) with cleaning; explaining how marketers and self appointed moral police made a clean home to not just be something to strive for, but women's moral duty to achieve. Horsefield explains how marketers and proponents of home economics (itself a misogynistic and idiotic construct) used the idea of teeny-tiny germs to enslave a couple of generations of women. All right, that last bit was a tad over dramatic, but you get this picture. The narrative is fascinating and informative. It was great fun to read, and I highly recommend it.

I picked up this book thinking it might be interesting historically but I had no idea what an absolute page-turner it would be. Margaret Horsfield is a natural storyteller and scholar. I hope she is better-known in her home country (Canada) than she is here, and that accolades here will catch up now that this book is in paperback. It was a fascinating treatment of a rarely discusssed subject, nearly prurient in its intrigue. The often surprising historical information is interspersed with her own clever commentary and glimpses into the private lives of women she interviewed for the book. An extremely solid and rewarding book, one of the best works of nonfiction I've read. The fact that Horsfield is (justly) critical of much twentieth-century literature about housekeeping but seems to enjoy cleaning herself enriches the humor and observations found throughout this book. Highly recommended!