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Welcome to our first No Spend November title!  This author has been on our radar for a while, and we were finally convinced to give her a review slot earlier in the year. One can only put off one of mom’s favorite authors for so long.  Please let me state for the record – Mama Rousselle, you are correct, this title was quality and I’m here for more!  

Yes darling readers, Carnegie’s Maid by Marie Benedict came to be on our list courtesy of Ashley’s mom and I’m only sorry it took us so long!  I adore a good historical novel, and I love a deep dive, so when I learned this is the tale of Benedict’s idea of how Andrew Carnegie could have been inspired to become a philanthropist, I was here for it (but also, have you seen Benedict’s catalog?  I’m here for all that!).  A potentially, maybe factual, but really a fictional guess at how our beloved Carnegie libraries came to be?  HERE. FOR. IT!  Yes, that is our tale, Clara Kelley immigrated to the US to be the backup plan for her Irish family to survive after the potato famine ravaged the land and their community, amidst the backdrop of the Civil War happening in the US.  She accidentally found her way into service for Mama Carnegie (my phrase, definitely not Clara’s) in Pittsburgh and is in over her head, having only served in kitchens before.  What’s a girl to do when she doesn’t know how to complete her task?  Get herself to a library to figure out what she’s supposed to be doing of course!  From there, antics ensue, she finds a friend below stairs and one above, and it’s a fun ride, and an interesting journey into the social dynamics of Pittsburgh and New York society, as well as the standings below stairs and the struggles faced by many immigrants in the 1860s.  

Overall, I really enjoyed the experience of Carnegie’s Maid.  The scenes were well described, the important characters were dimensional, and the writing was concise and engaging.  I didn’t love the (factual enough) ending, but I did appreciate the bow on the story at the end.  I’m giving this novel four solid stars.  I highly recommend it, but am not likely to reread it.  I am likely to pick up Benedict’s backlist though.  This was just the right mix of fact and fiction to get me really interested and excited.

What’s a book someone recommended to you and you only regret it took you so long?

~Nikki 

These are my confessions…

Mom has been asking me to read a Marie Benedict novel for a while now. Nikki and I struggle to balance all of our reading goals, and Benedict doesn’t check boxes when it comes to nonfiction or diversity. Nor do her historical fiction novels fit into the Heart.Wants.Books comfort read category like modern fantasy and romance novels. So, we made the time. My confession…I had checked out Carnegie’s Maid from Prime Reading July 12, 2022. I don’t think this confession is as much of a surprise as the information that Marie Benedict is the pen name of Heather Benedict Terrell. A litigator for 10 years, the Boston University School of Law graduate published her first novel, The Chrysalis, in 2007 and left law to write full time. She published seven novels under Heather Terrell and eleven as Marie Benedict. Starting with 2016’s The Other Einstein Benedict’s novels have been chosen for popular book clubs, been on numerous bestseller lists, and translated into 29 languages. Benedict’s mission is “to excavate from the past the most important, complex and fascinating women of history and bring them into the light of present-day where we can finally perceive the breadth of their contributions as well as the insights they bring to modern day issues.” She lives in Pittsburgh with her husband and children.

I think Benedict has achieved her mission with Carnegie’s Maid. Clara Kelley isn’t based on a real historical person, but Benedict does state that she used the familial stories of her Irish immigrant family members as inspiration – both for Clara’s mistaken identity and the way life was for immigrants in the 1860s. Margaret Morrison Carnegie, the indomitable mother of Andrew, is a force. More interesting to me than Clara’s story is the story of the immigrant Scots family who was able to climb financially and socially by the work ethic instilled by the matriarch. I had such empathy for Margaret, trying to fit in as nouveau riche in America and struggling to understand the details of what the upper class does. Clara says at one point:

“Would I always live in this nether space of service? Always present but never seen, never engaging, my presence interchangeable with any number of others? I’d overheard Mr. Holyrod lecture the rest of the staff about the dignity of service, but I couldn’t see the dignity in invisibility. Where was the dignity in constantly suppressing your own needs, views, and rights for others?”

I think this is the question that is felt deeply in Benedict’s mission, this is what women have done for time immemorial to the whims and needs of men and their children, families, and society. [cough, patriarchy, cough] And it is up to us to change that story going into the future. To be seen and appreciated for all the work, visible and invisible, that women do and have done to keep this world running. Benedict is using her voice to do this. And that’s something I can always get behind.

I’m so annoyed I waited this long to listen to my mother. She was right, and I, like Nikki, am giving Carnegie’s Maid a solid four stars. Benedict’s backlist will find a place in my reading life as soon as I can fit them in. If her other books are anything like Carnegie’s Maid, they promise to be filled with dimensional characters, interesting plots, and quick, solid reads. Not as much of an escape as a romance novel or some fantasy tropes, but not anything I’ll regret having read.

Moral of the story: Listen to Your Mother.

~Ashley

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