Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Book Review of The Undomestic Goddess

The Undomestic Goddess
prettyjellybean avatar reviewed Light, Humorous Read with a Bit of Romance on
Helpful Score: 1


If you like the breezy approach of such books as Bridget Jones' Diary, this will appeal to you also.

Samantha is a corporate lawyer, working hard for the chance of becoming partner at a top London firm. She feels great pressure to be perfect and productive, feeling it's a waste of time to allocate any time for herself. She's not quite sure what she wants in life - she's always been pressured by her successful mother to make it to the top of the heap lawyer-wise, but hasn't ever thought beyond that. What she does know is that the only thing that will get her any respect from her colleagues and parent is to work work work and then work some more, all very chipper and efficient and without any failing.

She is within a stroke of making partner when something goes desperately, incomprehensibly and inexcusably awry. Shaken, she rushes out of her law firm's offices, and staggers onto the first train, desperately running through various mental scenarios trying to make sense of things, little noticing or caring where she is going while her mental gears turn.

Through an odd turn of events, she is mistaken for a housekeeper applicant at a private residence and decides to drift with the situation while she gets her thoughts and emotions together. She has, however, neglected to take into account that she knows nothing about cleaning or cooking, but her inner perfectionist demands that she find ways to cover up her lack of skills. In the process, she begins to notice some of the simple pleasures around her, and develops a crush on the gardener, who is suspicious of her.

The book is very humorous. Samantha is smart and snappy, despite being lost and without bearings, and her rue at her lack of emotional center is very human and heart-warming. The book deals with her conflict over the importance of relationships, the definition of success, and knowing what pleases yourself versus what pleases those around you. The maeuvers she uses to try to pass as a domestic servant are quite funny, especially as she never has a "this is beneath me" attitude - rather, she is overwhelmed by the situation but, being Samantha, she *must* do it all and do it all seamlessly. Well, she wishes, anyhow.

Good read for a summer afternoon. Moves along quickly, not overly involved, but still very entertaining.