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Other People's
Dirt: A Housecleaners Curious Adventures by Louise Rafkin Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1998 |
| Are those piles of old mail,
monster dust bunnies, clothes from high school and useless kitchen
gadgets revealing a lack of control in your life? In Other
People's Dirt, Louise Rafkin claims they do indeed, and furthermore,
you neatniks are just the other side of this same control-freak coin.
With humor and insight she tackles a subject we all have to deal with
sooner or later - dirt. Like my favorite childhood hero, Harriet
the Spy, Louise started out peering into her neighbors' windows, notebook
in hand, and making up stories about them. When she grew up,
through serendipity or bad luck, she became a housecleaner.
This seems to be an excellent day job for a writer: good pay, ample
opportunity for sleuthing, and interesting material to write about.
From the 12- stepping Messies Anonymous to nude housecleaning services,
she explores her subject with a sharp eye for weird detail.
At times she takes easy potshots at her "upper, upper class X-ray
thin" customers, but also reveals her own awkward class differences
with Lupita, her childhood housekeeper. Other People's Dirt will make you chuckle and perhaps look harder at your attitude toward housecleaners and housecleaning. You might even discover, as the author did, that scrubbing toilets can be a spiritual path. BOTTOM LINE: Smart and amusing. |
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Cupid
and Diana by Christina Bartolomeo Scribner, 1998 |
| Have you noticed how, on the
East coast, people talk about their family heritage more than they
do in the West? They're interested in the background of your
last name - "Hey, my wife is Italian too, on her mother's side," or
"What is that, Armenian?" There is a consciousness about history
and ethnic flavor. This was something I enjoyed about Cupid
and Diana. The main character, Diana, is from an Italian
Catholic family, and lives in a middle class Washington, D.C., neighborhood.
She's about 30 and is involved with two very different men: the blue-blooded
son of a southern senator, and a sweet but rumpled Jewish guy from
New York. She has to make a choice and it challenges much of
what she understands about herself. We follow her story as she
struggles with her business (a vintage clothing store that is about
to fold) and her tense family dynamics. She runs interference
between one glamorous sister who models lingerie; the other sister,
a frumpy conservative housewife; and the irritating dad who plays
favorites. How she finds her own way is a little too pat, but
has charm. This is Christina Bartolomeo's first novel and it appears semi autobiographical. The writing is light (but happily not 'lite') and chatty. She's written for Cosmopolitan and it shows. Imagine a romantic comedy starring a brunette Meg Ryan, or maybe Courtney Cox. Hugh Grant and John Stewart could be cast as the love interests. BOTTOM LINE: Enjoyable but no surprises. |
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--Jennifer Murphy
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