Research Catalog

Title

Like one of the family : conversations from a domestic's life / Alice Childress ; foreword by Roxane Gay ; introduction by Trudier Harris.

Author

Childress, Alice

Publication

Boston : Beacon Press, [2017]

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

• Gay, Roxane
• Harris, Trudier

Description

xlii, 221 pages; 22 cm

Summary

"A new edition of Alice Childress's classic novel about African American domestic workers, featuring a foreword by Roxane Gay First published in Paul Robeson's newspaper, Freedom, and composed of a series of conversations between Mildred, a black domestic, and her friend Marge, Like One of the Family is a wry, incisive portrait of working women in Harlem in the 1950's. Rippling with satire and humor, Mildred's outspoken accounts vividly capture her white employers' complacency and condescension--and their startled reactions to a maid who speaks her mind and refuses to exchange dignity for pay. Upon publication the book sparked a critique of working conditions, laying the groundwork for the contemporary domestic worker movement. Although she was critically praised, Childress's uncompromising politics and unflinching depictions of racism, classism, and sexism relegated her to the fringe of American literature. Like One of the Family has been long overlooked, but this new edition, featuring a foreword by best-selling author Roxane Gay, will introduce Childress to a new generation"--

Subject

• African American women > Fiction
• Women household employees > Fiction
• Women > Social conditions > Fiction
• Racism > Fiction
• African American women > Fiction
• FICTION > Historical
• FICTION > Contemporary Women
• African American women
• Women household employees

Genre/Form

• Domestic fiction
• Fiction

Note

• "Published originally by Independence Publishers, Brooklyn, New York, 1956"--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages xxxix-xlii).

Processing Action (note)

• committed to retain

Contents

Foreword by Roxane Gay -- Introduction by Trudier Harris -- Selected bibliography by Trudier Harris -- Like one of the family -- Listen for the music -- On sayin' no -- Ridin' the bus -- Buyin' presents -- If you want to get along with me -- Got to go someplace -- The pocketbook game -- New York's my home -- All about my job -- Bubba -- The health card -- Your soul... another you -- Signs of the times -- Aren't you happy? -- Nasty compliments -- Old as the hills -- Mrs. James -- Hands -- All the things we are -- I liked workin' at that place -- Good reason for a good time -- I go to a funeral -- Weekend with Pearl -- More blessed to give -- Sometimes I feel so sorry -- I go to church -- I hate half-days off -- What does Africa want? Freedom! -- I wish I was a poet -- Economy corner -- In the laundry room -- I could run a school too -- I visit yesterday -- Story tellin' time -- About those colored movies -- Why should I get upset? -- Inhibitions -- What is it all about? -- We need a union too -- Pretty sights and good feelin's -- Dope and things like that -- Merry Christmas, Marge! -- On leavin' notes -- The "many others" in history -- Interestin' and amusin' -- A new kind of prayer -- History in the makin' -- Dance with me, Henry -- Ain't you mad? -- Discontent -- Northerners can be so smug -- Let's face it --If Heaven is what we want -- Where is the speakin' place? -- Missionaries -- So much for nothing -- The benevolent club -- All about Miss Tubman -- ABC's of life and learning -- Somehow I'd like to thank them -- Men in your life.

ISBN

• 9780807050743
• 0807050741

LCCN

^^2016040880

OCLC

• 961923812
• SCSB-11168826

Owning Institutions

Harvard Library