The Home-Maker

Dorothy Canfield Fisher wrote a children's book that's still widely-read ("Understood Betsy") but she's been virtually forgotten as a writer of adult novels. That's a shame because her work is superior, with well-rounded characters working their way through challenging situations. The Home Maker is particularly gripping because it's also a work of first-wave feminism, about a woman who makes herself and her family miserable when she's trapped at home and the unlikely ways she and her husband find to free themselves.

It is shocking to me that this book was published in 1924. It is incredibly poignant and thought-provoking, even by today's standards. Evangeline is the perfect housewife and mother of three young children. Her house is immaculate, her children mostly well-behaved. Dinner is healthy and hot and on the table precisely as scheduled. Everyone in town admires her as the perfect example of wife and mother. In reality, though, Evie is absolutely smothered by her life. She is impatient and unhappy, and her attitude and constant nitpicking is making her kids miserable and physically sick. Evangeline's husband, Lester, likewise hates his job as an accountant for a department store. He would like time to himself, to sit and puzzle through things, to watch the poetry of the world unfold around him. When Lester falls and is seriously injured, it becomes impossible for him to go back to work. Evangeline jumps into the workforce as a saleswoman, and finds she has an incredible talent for sales, and that nothing makes her happier than going to work every day. Lester, meanwhile, finds that he delights in spending so much time with his children, observing them grow and learn as he takes care of the day-to-day chores of the household. The children, free from the stress of living under their mother's constant criticism, blossom. This was such a compelling story of individuals trying to find their niche in society, and the surprise they find in being satisfied with working outside of their expected gender roles. The book very carefully examined the ways in which working outside of the home might be fulfilling to some people, while working at home might be just as fulfilling to others, regardless of their gender. I really liked the close inspection of the inner lives of the children as well; this book spent a great deal of time focusing on the fact that children are people with thoughts and feelings and needs just as important as those of adults, even when they don't have the words to express them. This book, although published eighty-four years ago, is still relevant today. Quite a feat.

I loved this book and wish that I could have known this writer because she must have been a formidable person in her day. Although today we might not judge harshly (at least not out loud) the subject matter of the book, the "correct" roles of men and women in a marriage, I think the perception is still there that women should delight in child-rearing, while men are all about making money. I kept having to remind myself that this was written nearly 70 years ago!