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  • Published: 1 September 2018
  • ISBN: 9780807050743
  • Imprint: Beacon Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 264
  • RRP: $45.00

Like One of the Family

Conversations from a Domestic's Life




A new edition of Alice Childress's classic novel about African American domestic workers featuring a foreword by Roxane Gay

Recommended by Entertainment Weekly

The hilarious, uncompromising novel about African American domestic workers—from a trailblazer in Black women’s literature and now featuring a foreword by Roxane Gay

First published in Paul Robeson’s newspaper, Freedom, and composed of a series of conversations between Mildred, a black domestic, and her friend Marge, Like One of the Family is a wry, incisive portrait of working women in Harlem in the 1950s. Rippling with satire and humor, Mildred’s outspoken accounts vividly capture her white employers’ complacency and condescension—and their startled reactions to a maid who speaks her mind and refuses to exchange dignity for pay.

Upon publication the book sparked a critique of working conditions, laying the groundwork for the contemporary domestic worker movement. Although she was critically praised, Childress’s uncompromising politics and unflinching depictions of racism, classism, and sexism relegated her to the fringe of American literature. Like One of the Family has been long overlooked, but this new edition, featuring a foreword by best-selling author Roxane Gay, will introduce Childress to a new generation.

  • Published: 1 September 2018
  • ISBN: 9780807050743
  • Imprint: Beacon Press
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 264
  • RRP: $45.00

Praise for Like One of the Family

"A novel that proves that humor can be the deadliest of weapons..If power were based on worth, Mildred would be running ther nation, not claeaning someone else's house." -Women's Review of Books
"If You Love The Help...check out Alice Childress' 1956 novel, Like One of the Family: Conversations From a Domestic's Life"--Entertainment Weekly (Sept. 2, 2011)