Book Review of The Downstairs Girl


    

This month I am reading The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee. This book is about a Chinese American girl named Jo living in Atlanta in the 1890s. Jo and Old Gin, the man who has been taking care of her, secretly live underneath the home of the family that owns the Focus, one of the Atlanta newspapers. Old Gin works with horses at the mansion of the richest family in Atlanta, the Paynes. Jo has had multiple jobs. When she was younger, she worked for the Paynes as well until Mrs. Payne fired her for no reason. Then she had a job as an apprentice in a hat shop but at the beginning of the book, she is fired from that job for making the customers “uncomfortable”. Her new job is for the Paynes again. She works as a maid for the daughter, Caroline Payne, who has played cruel tricks on her since they were children. 

Meanwhile, the Focus is in trouble. The Focus is unable to get as many subscribers as the other newspapers and might have to shut down as a result. Their stories are good, but they lack the advice column the other newspapers have. Through a pipe in her room, Jo eavesdrops on the owners of the Focus and she decides to anonymously write the advice column that the Focus so desperately needs.

I really liked this book because I thought it offered a new perspective on the time. As Caroline’s maid, Jo accompanied her on many of her outings while also serving her at home. This allowed Jo to interact with the rich girls in Atlanta and see what their society was like, as well as interact with other servants and see what their lives were like. I think that in books, you often get only one of these sides. Books are often either told from the perspective of someone who is part of the rich society or someone who just stays in the kitchen and does not really get to see what it is like. However Jo’s position as a maid to Caroline allowed the author to vividly show both situations. 

Jo’s identity as Chinese American also adds to the interesting perspective in the book. When she was younger, two other uncles lived with her and Old Gin. She talks a lot about all three uncles and all the things that she has learned from them, from Chinese art forms to ideas about how to lead life. These ideas strongly influenced her and I thought they were interesting to read about. In addition, people discriminated against her for being Chinese American which showed another aspect of the Atlanta society at the time.

A third way that Jo’s perspective was unique was that she writes for the newspaper. Her newspaper column allowed her to share her ideas with the world and allowed readers to see her opinions on issues people in Atlanta were discussing. It also allowed me to see what the newspaper was like and learn a little bit about how it worked which I thought was really interesting.

Overall, I think that The Downstairs Girl is a really good book and I strongly recommend it especially for anyone that likes historical fiction.

-Maya



Comments

  1. BridgetMay 17, 2021 at 12:06 PM

    Nice post! This is book was on my to-read list but I think I'll have to move it up. I like historical fiction and I'm always looking for good books with (preferably) accurate Chinese representation. I never took the time to read the synopsis but I think you summed up the book nicely. I agree that Jo's perspective does seem very unique compared to more one-sided books, and I'll definetely be reading this soon.

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  2. Marco L.May 17, 2021 at 3:17 PM

    Excellent post. It's always nice to see a book concerning turbulent times, and the fact that the book is able to show both sides of the conflict is fantastic. Like you said, it sucks when books only show one side of an argument; it feels incomplete, or like it's too clearly pushing an agenda.

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  3. Fallon McFarlandMay 21, 2021 at 7:40 PM

    This book sounds really interesting! It feels very odd that events in Jo's life fit together so well to give her such an expansive understanding of the setting. As odd as this is, I think it could be an interesting tool for the author to use to explore a historical setting and how different people living in that setting interacted with it. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Aryan SMay 23, 2021 at 7:23 AM

    This is a really informative post about your book. As someone who has already read it, you successfully captured all of the background information and meaningfully portrayed your thoughts about it without revealing the whole plot to the readers.

    ReplyDelete

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