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- Boardinghouse Stew Reviewed By Andrea Coventry of Bookpleasures.com
Boardinghouse Stew Reviewed By Andrea Coventry of Bookpleasures.com
- By Andrea Coventry
- Published September 6, 2009
- Biographies & Memoirs ,
Andrea Coventry
Reviewer Andrea Coventry: Andrea is a Montessori child - turned educator. An avid reader and writer, she is published on several websites. Click Here to find a listing of Andrea's sites where you can find many of her writing contributions.
Author: E.E. Smith
ISBN:
978-0-9798599-1-5
Publisher: Hanover
House
Click Here To Purchase Boardinghouse Stew
Boardinghouse Stew by E. E. Smith is an
interesting snapshot about life in a boardinghouse during World War
II. The author tells her own story of working as a maid and cook for
a summer in Mrs. Mumson's home on the West Coast in 1943.
Told
from the point-of-view of eleven year-old Eileen, the story is about
the interactions between Mrs. Mumson, and the six "guests"
who live with her. Patsy, the beautiful stenographer; Iris, a welder
and air raid warden; and Margaret, the telephone operator who has
been a little "sickly" lately, make up Mrs. Mumson's
"girls." Howard, a supervisor at the cannery; Doc, who is a
doctor; and Teddy, whose job is a mystery, yet he comes home with a
new car every few weeks, make up Mrs. Mumson's "boys".
Eileen, who lied and said she was thirteen years old, has been hired
to do the cooking and cleaning, because Mrs. Mumson's Japanese help
has been transferred to a holding camp.
Eileen works
hard to run the household. She has to be frugal in her shopping, due
to the rationing, and becomes creative in her culinary creations,
following the misguidance of the fictional "Miss Kitchen".
Her treats leave much to be desired, but no one else is doing the
cooking. She strives to keep the house clean, and works harder than
even most adults. Along the way, she gain insight into various
prejudices of the time, against the Japanese and the Germans. These
come to a head when a mysterious visitor appears on the doorstep. She
even learns a life lesson from the mysterious goings-on between
Margaret and a certain man.
Boardinghouse Stew is an
easy read, as it is written in the style of a play, told mostly
through dialogue. As someone not as familiar with reading scripts, I
could picture the play-by-play action, as if it were occurring on a
stage, thanks to the narrative style in lieu of stage directions. The
strong voice of an eleven year-old narrator helps you appreciate any
filtering and interpretation of events that could easily otherwise
seem ludicrous. Photographs of people familiar to the author, and of
places and things of the times, also bring about a real quality to
the story.
The story is unique, because most novels
about WWII seem to focus on the concentration camps and the war being
fought overseas. This brings the fear back to the homefront, and
brings about a sense of reality to the daily happenings of Americans
at the time, even if the characters seem sensational. It helps that
it is based on the recollections of E. E. Smith's actual experiences
during the war.
In the end, E. E. Smith addresses any
burning questions that the reader may have, such as what happened to
certain characters in the novel in real life. She also shares her
experiences with the boardinghouse as an adults, as well as some
experiences from writing and producing the original play.
Click Here To Purchase Boardinghouse Stew