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Saturday, December 2, 2017

Review of THE HOUSE GIRL by Tara Conklin

Advent Book Calendar – Day Two
Since I started by blog, I’ve done an annual Advent Book Calendar highlighting books I have enjoyed and authors I really like.  This year I thought I’d do an Advent Book Calendar with a twist; for each day leading up to Christmas, I’m going to post a review of a book to which I’ve given only one star (Throw a book at this one) or two stars (Don’t put this book in your book bag).  Though I would not recommend these books, others have disagreed with me.  Each book, on Goodreads, has received a 3 or 4 Star average rating.

Review of The House Girl by Tara Conklin
2 Stars
Alternating chapters tell the stories of two women. In 1853, Josephine Bell, a seventeen-year-old slave on a Virginian tobacco plantation, plans her escape to freedom. In New York in 2004, Lina Sparrow, a young attorney, is looking for a good lead plaintiff for a class action suit seeking reparation for the descendants of American slaves. The two stories intersect when Lina hears about a folk artist whose paintings are thought to actually be the work of her house girl Josephine. Lina sets out to do genealogical research to determine if Josephine had any descendants.

Josephine’s story - her life and her fierce determination to escape from servitude as a house slave – is compelling. The reader cannot but feel sympathy for her circumstances. Unfortunately, the author’s decision to tell the last part of Josephine’s story using a witness’s letter distances the reader from her and lessens the emotional impact of the narrative.

Lina’s story is much less interesting. The reparation case is really far-fetched, and her research is advanced by a series of coincidences that stretch credibility. Just as she seems to reach a dead end, a document lands in her lap which gives clues that have eluded numerous scholars. In the end a letter written by a peripheral character conveniently explains everything. Of course, this crucial document reaches her only at the last minute when an archivist has a change of heart.

Lina is not a believable character. She is able to change the minds of the archivist and her candidate for lead plaintiff yet she is totally passive at work and lets her boss walk all over her? She works hard at searching for evidence of Josephine’s descendants, yet she knows virtually nothing about the death of her mother 20 years earlier. Never did she actually conduct a search into her mother though she was an aspiring artist who had received some publicity? The reader is expected to see parallels between Josephine and Lina’s determination, but Lina just comes across as flat next to the house girl. Lina is a naïve, sheltered and unfocused young woman, and her story is bland.

The novel would work well as historical fiction if the focus had remained solely on Josephine and her story had been told directly without the inclusion of long missives from witnesses. Removing the Lina narrative would have eliminated most of the many coincidences and a weak character who does not inspire any emotional connection. The adding of the romance element in Lina’s chapters only added to the impression that the author was trying to write a commercial blockbuster which seems to necessitate such an element.

This book has strengths but considerable weaknesses. It should have been subjected to considerable revision.

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