Can you imagine a disaster that could bring joy to a family? Dorothy Canfield Fisher succeeded in doing just that with her 1924 novel The Home-Maker.
After fourteen years of marriage, Evangeline Knapp is so frustrated with domestic life that she has become a tyrant to her three
children. Her house is thick with tension as she nags and corrects them into submission. Her husband Lester is equally miserable in the department store job for which he is unsuited due to his bookish, absent-minded nature.
Relief comes when a housefire leaves Lester confined to a wheelchair, forcing his wife to seek work. This role reversal brings the realization that Lester is better suited to childcare, while Evangeline is better suited to business. The family’s fortunes change dramatically, and for the first time they experience happiness—until an unforeseen possibility threatens to destroy it.
Canfield Fisher, known for her work as a social activist, uses this scenario to suggest to readers of her time that people need not be bound by the expectations of society. A woman’s place is not necessarily in the home, nor is there shame in a man being domestic.
Fleshing out this theme is a well-detailed picture of small-town life in which people alternately help and gossip about each other. We learn much about the store owner and his wife whose common ambition completes their marriage; the Ladies’ Guild members who consider Evangeline a model homemaker; the neighbors Mattie Farnham and old Mrs. Anderson who fret over the Knapp tragedy.
The Knapp children, particularly Helen and Stephen, will touch the hearts of any parent who understands how desperately kids need guidance and reassurance from their parents. I particularly enjoyed the passage in which Lester and Helen try to figure out how best to crack an egg, and Stephen’s determination to master the art of working an eggbeater.
The Home-Maker may seem old-fashioned to modern readers. I found it a cleverly woven story, short but filled with depth and feeling. In my book it’s a five-star success.
Featured by Chevron Ross
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Weapons of Remorse The Seven-Day Resurrection The Samaritan’s Patient
