Homemaker

by Ruthie Knox

I inhaled this audiobook. I recommended it to a friend when I was about 15% in – risky, I know – and then I reinforced that recommendation a few times as I continued listening. I think she wanted me to calm down.

Homemaker is as much a mystery as it is about the cost of being in a marriage that functions like a shrinking cage, with the key held by an emotionally immature man. It’s a whodunit with big stakes (a woman from their community is missing, and her family and her friends are scared and devastated) and it’s Prairie’s ability to notice important details in the minutiae of the lives around her, lives that used to be much more similar to her own, that lead her into amateur sleuthing. Some folks call her nosy, but Prairie thinks of it as extremely attentive pattern recognition. Her narration is snarky and funny, but also poignant and sometimes bleak.

The clearest way to explain the tone of this book: at one point Prairie thinks about how there were “too many…eulogies for women’s potential.” On page 2, she muses, “She could have approval, or she could live free and do what she liked.” Prairie is a divorced, middle-aged mom of two girls, and has been shunned by the other moms who used to be her social circle for both exposing a locally beloved ob/gyn and for having the audacity of divorcing a “good one.” At one point Prairie explains that she knows why she’s been shunned, but it’s no less painful for her knowing the reason. She’s tenacious and determined, and will push past firm social boundaries to access information. This information helps make what’s happening around her make sense, though the method of acquiring it causes more fractures in her social connections. I liked Prairie, especially her perspective on the community she lives in and her critiques of that same community and its social rules, and I could see why she annoyed the people around her so much.

Homemaker is extremely, vibrantly feminist, though Prairie is not so much angry all the time (she is sometimes) as she is fed up and unafraid to point out all of the ways that women’s perceptions, labor, and accomplishments are devalued – unless that women’s work makes the man in her life look good to other people. Meanwhile, Prairie’s perception, labor, and ability to notice the right details and ask the right questions make her very, very good at sleuthing. And also the part where she’s kind of fearless about social boundaries: if they’re in the way, she doesn’t pay much attention to them.

There is a light romance in addition to the mystery, and it’s very sweet and emotionally nuanced. Prairie has barely re-entered the dating world, and is as methodical and organized about dating as she is with everyone else. Generally, advanced emotional awareness and emotional regulation govern so much of what Prairie does, and it’s a pleasure to listen to her whether she’s casually interviewing someone or having a date that might not be a date (but maybe it is)?

Speaking of listening – this book is in first person, past tense. Second, the story is set in Green Bay, and the narrator does a very good job differentiating between many different women’s voices, some with more Wisconsin accents than others.  OH! – and there’s some MLM drama, too, for those of you who love that, and you’ll definitely guess the company that inspired the MLM. The surrounding characters are fascinating with lives and interests of their own, too.

I really can’t say much more about this book without giving too much away, especially because the contrasts that develop between Prairie’s worldview and that of the women around her are deepened the more she discovers what might be happening. I figured out the ending and how the murder was done, but I was past 50% when the penny dropped, so to speak. Some of the more cringe-worthy moments made my stomach hurt, and Prairie’s unshakable belief in her version of what’s happening sometimes came across as arrogant, especially when I could see the social car crash about to happen. But again – Prairie can have approval, or she can have freedom to do what she likes. I have to respect that attitude. I think this is going to be a terrific series, and am extremely eager for the next one.

– SB Sarah