The Home-Maker

By: Dorothy Canfield Fisher

Narrated by: Anne Hancock

Length: 7 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

Evangeline Knapp's neighbors are in awe of her prowess. She re-upholsters furniture and can take scraps of fabric and create a beautiful garment. Her house is always immaculate and her children are beautifully behaved - except for the stubborn youngest, but with Eva's strength of will, they're certain she'll sort him out in time. The neighbors don't know that in her frenzied zeal to create the perfect home, her children live in dread of her temper. She loves them, but she can't stand having to remind them constantly about the same things, simple rules easy enough for anyone to understand. Eva can't abide childishness.

Her husband Lester is no less miserable in his job as a department store accountant, sacrificing his love of literature and poetry to the daily grind of commerce. Lester can't seem to get ahead and feels like a failure. Shouldn't a man be able to provide better for his family? Isn't that his job?

When a near fatal accident forces these two to switch roles, each finds their true calling. Then fate steps in again.

As with her children's classic Understood Betsy, Dorothy Canfield Fisher brilliantly explores the inner lives not only of the parents but the three Knapp children. An early champion of the Montessori Method, the author stresses that children should learn by doing, should be allowed to fail at tasks so they can experience the triumph of success and discover their strengths. The Home-Maker proves that the same holds true for adults, that biology should not determine destiny.

But will society allow deviation from its rules?

Public Domain (P)2020 Anne Hancock

Beautifully written

What a brilliant book. Loved the narrative, the development of characters , the children . The story of tradition versus fulfilment as a human being and parent & child

A book that isn't waiting for a screenwriter

What an excellent BOOK. I've been thinking for a while that all the books I'm reading are going to be made into films (or have already been made into films or TV series). There's no internal dialogue. Just the story awaiting a screenwriter. Well, this book was different. Plenty of thoughts from each of the characters which comprised around 50% of the book. And what a difference it made to listen to a book instead of seeing the fill/TV series.
So, you'll probably have read a synopsis but to enlarge on my point above I really enjoyed reading what the children were thinking and what was going on in their heads. In some ways, I wish I'd read/listened to this book when my children were small. It was a window into their souls and isn't that what a novel should be?
I'd really recommend this book especially if you enjoy early 20th Century literature or, indeed, dipping into the past to realise that humans haven't changed, it's just society which has over the ages.