Review of His Family

Let me explain the balls of yarn. This is my rating system. I love to knit and I also love yarn, so naturally this is what I chose to show how much I love a book or don't love a book. The rating will go from one ball of yarn for books I don't really like to five balls of yarn for books I love. And now on to the review!

Although the subject matter of this book is not filled with thrills and chills or even with any sort of suspiciousness, it is an enjoyable book about a man whose wife passed away and left him to raise three girls. This story is set in New York in the early 1900s, and luckily at this time having a housekeeper was fashionable and the only way to live, so he didn't need to worry about cleaning and cooking. Somehow he lives quite comfortably, without too many cares, even though he only seems to be lightly interested in his business of selling newspaper clippings to people who want to see their name in print, which I have to say is a rather odd business, in my opinion.

One thing I really enjoyed was reading his take on each of his girls' personalities. His oldest daughter is pregnant and gives birth to her fifth child. She is very particular about being "old fashioned" and staying home to take care of her kids. She is completely involved in her kids' lives and doesn't seem to have time for anything else. His middle daughter, who this book is mostly about, is overly involved in her career, something that during this time was not done. She is in her 30s and unmarried. Instead she spends her time as a principal at a school for children and immigrants who can't afford private schools. She feels it is her mission to save all of them from any grief or hunger and to open public schools where anybody can go, for free. There is a doctor also serving the same people who wants to marry her, but she is afraid to become like her older sister and become so involved in her own children that she can't fulfill her career. The youngest daughter is very flippant and unconcerned with money or morals. She marries, mostly for money, and her marriage ends and she enters another. She doesn't want children (another thing not looked kindly upon in this time) and loves to spend money.

When tragedy hits and a war begins you can see how this family somehow pulls together and makes the most of the hard times. In the end I began to care about each of them and felt concern and joy over their lives. This book was one of the most enjoyable books I've read. It made me think about my own siblings. I have four sisters and one brother and each of us have basically followed the same path. We are all married and my sisters and I each have children and are stay at home moms; our children are being raised in the best way possible that each of us can do, but they are very different from each other. We each have our ideals and interests, but it's what we do with them that makes a difference for our posterity.