The House Girl

If you love historical fiction, the Underground Railroad and/or have a penchant for art history this book hits the trifecta.

I don’t like to do spoilers in my reviews but as with all good things in life proceed with caution.

Upfront, I loved that the author doesn’t always make it clear who is black/African American or a descendant of slaves unless ironically the concept of being high yellow, red bone or dark is introduced by another black person.
There are a time jumps from a Plantation in the South prior to the Civil War and a NYC modern day law firm.
Women and their roles in society dominate the narrative whether it’s the frail /sick plantation owner, her house girl (slave), a young hippie artist in the 1980s and beautifully flawed power lawyer today.

Slavery reparations is legally and philosophically grappled with along with descendants rights. The “House Girl” and her female master/owner both produce fine art paintings while the moral and legal art rights are debated over a century later. We wrestle with the finding of descendents, children left behind while parents travel the underground railroad and the “better life” centuries later .

This is book is one I want my daughters to read. The ongoing sense of self worth, living your passion and parental forgiveness are wonderfully handled.

I highly recommend this book for both its historical and modern moral significance.

I was given the hardbound book and began to read it. Within a couple chapters, I realized that I cannot read this book with bad bedside lighting… Because I couldn’t put it down. So I purchased the e-book, knowing that with the backlight on my phone, I could read in a dark room! (And wherever I was with an extra few minutes of downtime.)

This story takes the life of a slave girl in the 1800’s, and intertwines it with the life of a young attorney in today’s world. The descriptive prose of the South almost made me smell the flowers, dirt, and dust in the rugs. It is a methodical meandering of lives and inner growth for almost everyone you meet in the story. The braiding of lives, into a final understanding is masterful. I am anxious to read whatever this author brings next!

This book is one of those that go back and forth between the past and the present. In the past, Josephine Bell, a house girl slave cared primarily for Missus Lu Ann Bell, a sickly woman. Missus Lu had 17 miscarriages and was broken-hearted that she was denied children. Josephine was the closest child to her. She taught her to read and write, secretly of course. Missus Lu aspired to paint and often allowed Josephine free reign with the paints and easel. Josephine’s gift was obvious. First and foremost in Josephine’s mind was to “run”.

In the present, Carolina (Lina) Sparrow, a young attorney had just been assigned to collaborate with coworkers on a reparation case, reparation for slavery. A bit of background on Lina…she was 24, living with her father, Oscar, an artist. Lina’s mother had been killed in an auto accident when Lina was 4, or so she was always told. Her mother, Grace, had also been an artist. Lina took this case of the reparation with ferver. She had to find a descendent of Josephine’s, if there even was one. Her searches uncovered much. She did find the truth of Josephine Bell, the little slave House Girl. As all accounts of the evils of slavery, this can be hard to read at times, but it is a very touching and telling story of two amazingly strong women, Josephine Bell and Lina Sparrow.

This book is two disparate stories with loose threads that bind them together, and first-time author Tara Conklin brilliantly succeeds in weaving this tale of Josephine Bell, a slave on a Virginia plantation in the mid-1800s, with the modern-day story of Lina Sparrow, a first-year attorney at a high-powered New York City law firm who traces Josephine’s descendants to find a lead plaintiff for a reparations class action lawsuit.

The story of Josephine is realistic and heartbreaking–a story of courage, spunk and determination against all the odds. The story of Lina is peppered with unexpected twists as she learns much about her own history in the process of uncovering the mysteries that surrounded Josephine’s life.

This historical novel has an absorbing plot with fully-developed and meaningful characters. And it is something that is quite rare: It is VERY New York and VERY Southern–at the same time. This is a magnificent book!

I loved the premise of this novel, but did not care for the scattered way it was told. The title makes the book seems as though the it will be about Josephine the slave, but it is really about Lina the lawyer and her tedious journey to win a case- not as interesting. I couldnt help but feel the plot had some outrageously unlikely events SPOILERS

– Lina can uncover the genealogy of a woman who lived 150 years ago, but she didnt have the gumption to research the death/disappearance of her own mother.
– Lina happens to be introduced to the actual decedent of Josephine and beneficiary of the Bell Art Estate.
– The Bell Estate Librarian trusts Lina with a document she obscured from the other lawyers, and it just happens to reveal everything Lina needs to verify her witness.
-At the very end Lina copies and distributes case details, which seems pretty legally imprudent for a lawyer to do.
– Dan says at end he took on the Reparations Case on contingency, meaning he wouldnt be paid unless Reparations were actually granted- yeah right!

Other than that, I thought the lengthy letters in the book were just fluff and the character I wanted to know more about, Josephine, had her perspective told the least.

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