Summer of Gold and Water

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Pub Date 30 Apr 2018 | Archive Date 30 Apr 2018
Sunbury Press, Inc. | Milford House Press

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Description

'Its gone, the dam is gone, I can't believe it. It just broke, and all that water...' Michael sat down heavily on the steps and started to cry.

Sarah Green knows her place. She's a hard worker born of hard-working parents and married to an honest, blue-collar man who loves her. It is no surprise to those who know her when she is hired by one of Philadelphia's richest--and most eccentric--families as their first maid. Sarah has complete confidence she can sew, cook, and clean, but can she handle the other responsibilities her new employers, Wesley and Eloise Danvers, request of her?

Confidant. Counselor. Friend. Whenever Eloise gains an inch, earning a bit more of Sarah's trust and friendship, she takes a mile. Before Sarah has fully acclimated to being friends with her employer, she and her family are spending summers at an exclusive club as members with the Danverses! The summers are uncomfortable for Sarah as she struggles to make nice with Philadelphia's richest matrons and watches her only daughter interact with their daughters and sons. The Danverses brush off her worries, insisting that they love the Greens and their friends do too. Not until an act of man and nature strikes do the Greens and Danverses see the social divide for what it is and are faced with the challenge of breaching it in the Summer of Gold and Water.

'Its gone, the dam is gone, I can't believe it. It just broke, and all that water...' Michael sat down heavily on the steps and started to cry.

Sarah Green knows her place. She's a hard worker born...


Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781620062555
PRICE US$19.95 (USD)

Average rating from 5 members


Featured Reviews

Living in the UK the subject of our corrosive class system is deeply rooted in our collective unconsciousness and is also portrayed throughout our literature. But sometimes the American class system can be somewhat overlooked despite the efforts of their great novelists, Henry James’ The Bostonians being a classic example. The issue of class and how it impacted on late 19th century American society is intricately explored in this beautifully insightful novel by Kathleen Danielczyk. The story begins in 1875 when Sarah Green is hired as a maid to the Danverses a rich Philadelphia family. The Danverses despite their wealth have an altruistic and somewhat unconventional attitude to their employees and Sarah is treated as a friend despite being an employee. This somewhat unusual relationship is tested when the Greens accompany the Danverses during the summer to an exclusive country club as members not servants with the resultant unease and discomfit that Sarah feels not to mention down right hostility that she encounters. Although the families two daughters grow up as almost sisters it is made quite clear that each would marry within their social class and not outside.

As the story unfolds we see how ultimately futile and divisive such differences between people are as all need to unite against the effects of a catastrophic event. The writing is succinct and the characters are finely drawn and we see the dilemmas that Sarah must wrestle with along her personal journey. I really liked this book and although something of a slow burner I was certainly captivated by this story which still has resonance in today's world.

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