Domestic Affairs by Eileen Goudge
My rating: 
(2 / 5)
Well, that could have been better.
This book follows three women whose lives intersect in really, very weird ways. Two of them knew one another as kids because the mom of one – Abigail – was a housekeeper for the other’s – Lila – family. They grew up, and Lila married rich because – well, that’s what rich people do, right? Only her husband lost all their money. And Abigail worked hard! Because that’s what blue collar kids do, right? And she made a fortune and married a doctor. Now Lila needs a job so – surprise! Abigail hires her as a housekeeper. But Abigail has her own drama brewing because she’s grown up to somehow be blind to the plight of blue collar workers and runs what is basically slave labour in her Mexican factory, leading to the death of another woman’s kid. The other woman – Concepción – decides to go to America and stalk Abigail because, well, reasons.
There’s a lot of drama and a lot of crappy stuff happens to the women and it’s kind of soap-opera-ey but without the shirtless handsome men wandering around (do soap operas still have that? It’s the only reason I watched them in my 20’s). Instead there’s a terrible, insensitively written middle-eastern immigrant and a terrible, insensitively written brother with cancer, and a terrible, insensitively written Mexican immigrant, and all I can think is DID THIS WHITE LADY EVER MEET ANYONE NOT WHITE AND RICH IN HER LIFE????
I mean, in many ways I’m just a basic white girl myself, but the language this woman uses, and the way she writes about other cultures and travel in third world countries and I just cannot even.
That said, I did manage to make it to the end, so I gave it two stars. But I spent a lot of time wandering around the house talking to the animals about how disgusted I was with parts of this book, and shaking my head and wanting to throw things.