Book: The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella (CL)

I confess, I chose Sophie Kinsella's The Undomestic Goddess because of the title; I can really relate to a modern woman who has focused on the intellectual aspects of her life and never got around to learning more traditional tasks like, well, cooking and cleaning.

Our heroine is a high-powered corporate attorney who makes a career-ending mistake and runs away from London to decide what to do next. She somehow becomes engaged as a domestic servant even though she literally knows nothing about keeping house. Her love interest is the family gardener, a man who is much more interesting than that sounds.

Despite the premise, this is not an anti-feminist text. Instead, the author deals honestly with how her heroine redefines success in her own life and discovers what she really wants, which is in many ways the heart of feminism.

I really enjoyed all but the last thirty pages, where the novel suddenly shifts from mellow self-discovery to a frantic and ill-considered episode that seemed very out of line with the discoveries and decisions the heroine has made thus far. This tone creates for us the sense of the fast-paced life she considers returning to, but the decisions she makes during this time threaten to undermine all the character development we have seen up to this point.

However, despite the rushed, "what was that?" feel of the last pages leading to the conclusion, this book is a fun and worthwhile read. Grade: B+