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There are currently 23 member reviews
for The House Girl
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Martha D. (Poway, CA)
House Girl by Tara Conklin
I was so excited to get an advanced reader copy of this book. I was looking forward to it and was not disappointed at all. I was caught up in the story from the very beginning. I know many people are not fans of epistolary stories but I really do enjoy them. The main characters are completely engaging and while the storyline was often hard to read and a reminder of just how awful parts of our history are, it was still a very worthwhile read and I highly recommend this book.
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vam (San Antono, Texas)
The House Girl by Conklin
My review is based on the soft back edition of this book which I received free from the publisher as an "Advance Readers Edition" in exchange for the promise that I would write a review.
Unlike many books where it takes several chapters before you are drawn into the story, I was immediately captivated by this book. The primary message in the book for me was the comparison between the hopes and dreams of two girls. One was a modern day smart young white female lawyer raised by a single father who thought she knew who she was and what she wanted but found that true satisfaction laid elsewhere. The other girl was a young gifted black girl raised as a "thing" on a Virginia plantation who had never been beyond the gates of the Virginia plantation but had an inner desire to be "free" even while having no concept of what being free would actually consist of. Surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, these two women had much in common.
There were a multitude of the examples of how horribly the slaves were treated during those days – I thank God that this era of slavery is behind us. There were also hints at the various ways people of today are actually enslaved by controlling things and people. In addition, the novel explored the pros and cons of the question of whether we Americans in 2012 still owe the black people "back pay" for the contributions made by their forefathers in building this great country we all live in.
The two primary characters were very well developed and I could relate to both of them. Unfortunately, I never was able to dive into the mind of some members of the supporting cast. For instance, it would have been interesting to know what really drove the plantation owner. I concluded that a series of failures had made him a bitter and brutal person and I think his reactions were sadly true to life when our dreams fall apart, but I wished I had been able to explore some of his mental processes.
The book was an easy read with a somewhat simple plot but hidden within the tapestry of the plot are several diverse threads that provide insights into the different ways that we humans are wired by God to live and think.
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Julie M. (Minnetonka, MN)
Art Documents History
This was a wonderful book about the power of creativity and art in a young slave girl. It portrays in an inspiring story how through art a person survives long after they have left this world. It reinforced the importance of art in our world and of preserving our history.
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Naomi Benaron (author of Running the Rift)
Spellbound by the narration
The two juxtaposed strands in Tara Konklin's The House Girl immediately pulled me in: Josephine, fiercely proud house girl, born into slavery in Virginia in the 1830's, and Lina Sparrow, ambitious and fiercely independent lawyer, beginning a career with a prestigious New York law firm. The characters were tenderly wrought, their stories compelling and richly complex, bound together not only by what they have - a propelling drive for justice and for recognition—but also by what they lack – the presence of a mother in their lives. I was spellbound as the narrative propelled me forward, the two stories weaving closer and closer together in both inevitable and unexpected ways. Alas, for me, the spell was broken in the last third of the novel when the narrative veered from these two voices into those of more minor characters. I had fallen in love, and I did not want the sharp-edged beam of Conklin's prose to look away.
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Mary R. (San Jose, CA)
A New Twist on Slavery
The House Girl is a compelling story that interweaves two women from different eras and races. Making the character of Josephine a painter was a fascinating twist on the slavery story – as was having her paintings co-opted by her owner. The opposing modern day story with Lina as an attorney was also a insightful look into the legal world of reparation lawsuits. The twists and turns at the end brought the story full circle and I guess the only thing that I wish is that there was more of a conclusive ending.
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Judy B. (Santa Fe,, NM)
History as a Novel
I loved this story. I did not mind that the book was written in the present and in the past. I was always wondering what would happen next in either the past or the present. In the past, this is a story about a young girl who is trained as a house slave; in the present, this is a story about a young female lawyer who is helping to put together a case for reparations of descendents of slaves in the US. There are many stories being woven together to make this story; the author has done a fine job. However, there are too many coincidences, such as the lawyer's father is an artist; she accidentally meets a musician who turns out to be a possible descendent of the house slave; the lawyer collects a big piece of the puzzle in the form of a letter that has been hidden in a book. The history in this novel really makes it very interesting if you do not know much Civil War history; however that was one of my favorites parts of history in college which made this story all the more interesting----the buying and selling of slaves, the Underground Railroad--all a fascinating part of the South and our slave-owning past of the United States. This issue nearly tore apart our country. This novel is one of the best ways to learn about that past!
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Ruth O. (Downingtown, PA)
Historical search for the truth
'The House Girl' takes place in two time periods, 2004 and 1852, and explores a legal case for reparations for slavery. The book took several chapters to really catch my interest as it laid out the foundation of the story. As the story progressed, however, my curiosity increased and I was unable to put the book down until I finished it.
The chapters smoothly flowed back and forth between the time periods, focusing on the staid young lawyer who was researching the reparations case in 2004 and the young slave girl in 1852. It wove together art and family secrets that occurred in both time periods, and both protagonists had to find their own identities. This was a very unique approach to the search for truth, and I enjoyed it very much. I would recommend this to book clubs!
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