Hadassah

Joan Skrag­gs, liv­ing a rough, hard­scrab­ble life on a Penn­syl­va­nia farm with an abu­sive father and unsym­pa­thet­ic broth­ers, aspires to a bet­ter life. She loves lan­guage and lit­er­a­ture, although her expo­sure to the fin­er points of each has been lim­it­ed and basic. When her cold, heart­less father tells her that her edu­ca­tion is at an end and burns her only books, the trea­sures of her soul, Joan runs away and lands for­tu­itous­ly at the home of a wealthy Jew­ish fam­i­ly as a maid, or as she styles it a “hired girl.” Sud­den­ly her vis­tas open and her life seems filled with adven­ture and pos­si­bil­i­ty. Joan’s spunky, car­ing and open per­son­al­i­ty make her a hero­ine to care deeply about as she pro­ceeds to grow from an une­d­u­cat­ed bump­kin with an avid curios­i­ty, roman­tic nature and kind heart into a refined young woman with a rich and pro­duc­tive life ahead. The Rosen­bachs, the Bal­ti­more Jew­ish fam­i­ly for whom she works, are well ensconced in the Jew­ish com­mu­ni­ty and the read­er, along with Joan, learns much about the Jew­ish soci­ety of the ear­ly 1900s in that part of the coun­try. The Rosen­bach fam­i­ly mem­bers are drawn by the author with care. Each fam­i­ly mem­ber has a set of very human flaws but there is great warmth, as well. They see spe­cial qual­i­ties in this young girl and each in his or her own way man­ages to help Joan over­come cir­cum­stances and the grow­ing pains of youth.

A quin­tes­sen­tial por­trait of Amer­i­ca and all it has stood for since its found­ing, this book encap­su­lates hope for the down­trod­den, the flu­id­i­ty of class in the New World, and the poten­tial for those with tal­ent and grit to rise above their hum­ble begin­nings and shine. But in spite of these lofty themes, this feels noth­ing like a trea­tise. It’s a fun book to read and a page-turn­er as the heroine’s quirky and charm­ing per­son­al­i­ty makes the read­er eager to see what her next escapade can pos­si­bly be.

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