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The Hired Girl
602 pages
A warm, funny, and deeply intimate diary of a girl writing her own ticket to a bigger, brighter world.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like discovering a dusty, leather-bound diary in an attic and being immediately charmed by the fierce, funny, and deeply earnest voice within. The narrative unfolds at a steady, intimate pace, anchored entirely by a protagonist whose dramatic flair and literary obsessions make her both hilarious and profoundly relatable. It is a cozy but emotionally rich experience, steeped in the sensory details of early twentieth-century domestic life, from the smell of baking bread to the quiet thrill of a borrowed library book. The mood is overwhelmingly hopeful, even when navigating the thorny realities of class divides and religious differences. It will thoroughly delight readers who cherish coming-of-age stories featuring messy, passionate heroines who stumble their way toward independence, armed with a fierce intellect and a romantic heart.
- Mood
- cozy
- hopeful
- intimate
- nostalgic
- Tone
- earnest
- wry
- melodramatic
- humorous
- yearning
- Pace
- steady
- Themes
- the transformative power of literature · navigating class and religion · female independence · coming of age · first love and infatuation
- The writing
- Highly voice-driven, capturing the dramatic, literary-obsessed, and charmingly naive cadence of a 1911 teenager's diary.
- The arc
- Moves from stifling despair to a blossoming, joyful, and occasionally messy awakening of self.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love fiercely passionate, slightly melodramatic heroines who find salvation in books and messy life experiences.
Content notes
- parental abuse
- grief
- historical antisemitism
About the book
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.
Description from Open Library.
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