The Hired Girl
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Ever since the untimely death of her mother, 14 year-old Joan Skraggs has been desperately unhappy. Under the thumb of her cruel father and three sullen brothers, Joan lives like a servant on their farm just outside of Lancaster, forever cooking, cleaning, and attending to the many demands of the home. But she has little freedom, and less support from her family for her love of reading and blossoming interest in education. But when her father tells Joan she can't go to school anymore, it sets off a journey that will see her become first a runaway, then a hired girl on $6 a week, and finally her very own young woman. Set in America during the optimistic years before the First World War, and told through a series of journal entries, THE HIRED GIRL is the story of a young girl in search of Real Life and True Love. It takes in feminism and housework; money, religion, and social class; literature and education, romanticism and realism, first love and sexual yearnings, cats, hats, and bunions. And it's a comedy.
Source: https://www.recordedbooks.com/title-details/9781490632247
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See my full review at The Emerald City Book Review. As articulated by Schlitz, Joan's voice is alternately funny, fierce, and vulnerable, as she bravely – but very naively – makes her way from an oppressive family to employment that has its own risks and challenges. The unusual exploration of clashing minority religions (Joan is Catholic; her employers are Jewish) is sensitively done, and the historical setting is fully and convincingly realized. Many facets of history and culture are seamlessly integrated, from the chapter titles taken from real works of art that Joan might have seen, to the origins of the Baltimore school founded by progressive Jews where Schlitz works today as a librarian. A pleasure from beginning to end.
I really enjoyed this one. The story is told through entries in the bright young heroine's diary. Joan is smart, but young and gets herself into awkward situations as she works as a hired girl in a wealthy Jewish home in 1911 Baltimore. Joan is Catholic by birth, and is learning about her faith, and learning about the faith of the family she works for (as it infuses the day to day routines of the home). The family she works for recognizes she is bright and encourages her reading. Even though religion is a backdrop to the story, this is not a religious book. The comparisons to Ann Shirley in the other reviews are correct: This is Ann Shirley cleans house and widens her horizons.
A sweet little book about loyalty, the powers of an education, the importance of self assertion and judging one by one's actions and not his/her religion. Excellent read about tolerance without it being preachy. The main character is reminiscent of Anne from the Green Gables series.
