The Servants' Quarters

by Lynn Freed

Book Overview

The Servants' Quarters, a complex and sophisticated love story, evokes a vanishing world of privilege with a Pygmalion twist. Haunted by phantoms of the Second World War and the Holocaust, young... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0151012881
• ISBN13: 9780151012886
• Release Date: April 2009
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.7" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Loved It!

I loved this book due to the fact that while it was a quick read, it was also enchanting and filled with many themes. Cressida is a unique child for one that was raised post WWII. She is opinionated, curious, and sometimes very unladylike. She has an older sister Miranda and a mom who believes heavily in appearances. The family must take care of Cressida's comatose father who has suffered a head injury. Due to financial difficulties, Cressida and her family are forced to move in with George Harding, a family friend. They have to live in the servant's quarters. George is immediately taken by Cressida's free thinking and brazen attitude. George requires Cressida to change his nephew, Edgar, to think and be more like her. Meanwhile, Cressida feels very uncomfortable around George Harding because he was disfigured in the war in fact so much that he wears a veiled hat.Cressida resents living there, resents having to teach Edgar who is timid, and resents her mother for being so vain. Meanwhile, Cressida is trying to get to know her father since she did not have an opportunity due to his head injury. Just like any child, she does not understand why he is still in a coma. It is interesting to see how two unlikely people (George and Cressida) form a relationship that binds them together. Cressida is an extremely likable, spunky, and outspoken girl. She sees people for who they really are and questions things that she does not understand even if it means making people feel uncomfortable. The Servant's Quarters has many themes running through it such as different social classes, the holocaust, and picking up the pieces after WWII. It was a wonderful read and I highly recommend it!

Thought provoking coming of age story

This is the first novel I've read by Lynn Freed and I must say it is quite clever and impressive. I found The Servants' Quarters to be an engaging first person narrative, crafted simply and intelligently with underlying subtle and complex themes. It is a quick read but one with staying power. It is a three part story which begins in juvenile voice ~ so juvenile in fact that I found myself at first wondering if the novel was actually meant for juvenile readers instead of adults. What I soon recognized were the deeper layers of the story which came of age and developed into sophisticated maturity along with Cressida its narrator and main character. I connected with Cressida quickly as her character grew and was revealed with wrenching honesty. The other characters were equally well developed and interesting. In the novel's brevity the story was at times disjointed and did not seem to flow well but all and all I enjoyed The Servants' Quarters very much and rate it as excellent. I do recommend this thought provoking coming of age story.

All expectations fulfilled

This novel is pure Lynn Freed: beautiful writing, complex characters, relationships that force the reader to look far beneath the surface of class and privilege to the individuals who struggle daily to maintain their social position...or flounder while attempting to elevate it. The love story between the sexually-charged young Cressida and the physically and emotionally disfigured Mr. Harding is both frightening and tender. For these Colonial families in post-war South Africa, life is as mundane as it is electrifying. No one writes this better than Lynn Freed.

Mysterious and Complex

For a young girl of ten, Cressida is amazingly complex. George Harding, at two and half times her age, notices. George Harding, severely wounded and deformed in the war, spends most of his time at his home, a large mansion built with sugar money. He cares for his nephew, Edgar and a variety of people through the years occupy his carriage house including Cressida's family. Cressida's father is comatose following a smack on the head with a golf club which leaves her mother, Muriel, to take care of raising the family and managing to get by financially. Taking place in South Africa give the story an exotic feel and yet the lives of Cressida's family is more akin to white trash. This story has a mysterious quality and the characters are fascinatingly complex. It reminded me of Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier. It is one of the few books I would reread just because there is so much packed into each word and sentence; it is like a piece of art that needs to be studied and pondered.

Complex, beautifully written life study of unusual love affair

Told in three parts, over the course of a crucial decade in the life of a young woman, this unusual novel is at once a complex love story, an intricate character analysis and a evocative period piece about life in post-World War II South Africa. The novel juxtaposes the story of the Hardings, who are "old school" wealthy and educated members of the British upper class, with that of the Jewish family who they have invited to move into their servants' quarters. When the novel opens, nine-year old Cressida, the youngest daughter of a Jewish family fallen on hard times because her father is in a bed-ridden vegetative state, is raging because she is being forced by her beautiful, socially-ambitious mother to spend time with George Harding. Mr. Harding, as Cressida always calls him, is a former RAF pilot who was severely burned in a plane crash, and then held in a German POW camp during the war. His injuries have left him so disfigured that he usually wears a hat and veil to conceal his face. Cressida, the novel's narrator, is defiant and angry at Mr. Harding's request that she spend time with his nephew, Edgar. At first it seems as though Mr. Harding only wants Cressida to visit his mansion to mentor the backward, rather stupid Edgar. But it soon becomes apparent that Mr. Harding is taking a hand in molding Cressida's character, for some hidden purpose of his own. This novel is beautifully written, with an almost hypnotically strong narrative voice. The three parts of the novel, narrated by Cressida when she is nine, then fifteen and finally nineteen, are each told in a style which reflects both the age-appropriate style and vocabulary, and the leaps in understanding and sophistication which a real person goes through in growing up. That Cressida's entire young life is overshadowed by the powerful character of Mr. Harding keeps the reader fascinated by the motivations and interactions of each of these two unusual characters. Both characters harbor an inner anger which can be explosive. The minor characters in the book are wonderfully drawn. Two interesting examples are Cressida's mother, Muriel, who is pulled down by disappointment in life and disillusionment in love to alcoholism; and Cressida's sister, Miranda, who is forced into an unhappy marriage because of an unplanned pregnancy. Ultimately this book is about the utter waste of war, and the heart-rending repercussions which war inflicts even on those who did not fight the actual battles. Although unflinching, and even heartbreaking, the novel is ultimately uplifting because it celebrates the incredible ability of people to adapt and to live on, doing the best they can. I recommend this book without reservation. It is brilliant.