BACKSTAIRS AT THE WHITE HOUSE

by Gwen & Paul Dubov Bagni ‧ RELEASE DATE: Jan. 15, 1978

Full of sobs choked off heroically and rushed into print to coincide with a television mini-series, this novelization (by the teleplaywrights) takes us through 50 years behind the presidential drapes, as peekabooed by Maggie Rogers (Taft through FDR) and her daughter, Lilian Rogers Parks (FDR till JFK). Maggie, abandoned by a shiftless husband, with two children to support, scrubs the grand staircase and does Nellie Taft's hair, the first black maid to work upstairs, and, ultimately, the first black First Housemaid. Lilian, crippled young and unemployed in the Depression, only follows Mama as a last resort, but, like her, comes to feel possessive and devoted to ""Her Ladies"" and the ever-changing first family in its constant crises. Downstairs there is flirtation, back-biting, intra-servant snobdom. Upstairs, an awful lot of portentous conversation just happens to be overheard (""Teapot dome. . . wonder who saddled it with that crazy name?""). And outside lurks heartbreak: ""You not married to me. You married to the White House."" Familiar anecdotes, a few surprises (lively Coolidge), and more than a few bathetic intrusions (""A meteor shot across the political skies by the name of Franklin Delano Roosevelt""), but overall this is decent, teary, fictionalized history--based on Lilian's autobiography--with scarcely an unlovable wart on any presidential countenance.

Pub Date: Jan. 15, 1978

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Prentice-Hall

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 1978

Categories: FICTION