Cultured Handmaiden by Catherine Cookson

At twenty-one, Jinny Brownlow's life is not going as well as she had hoped. She's working at a dead-end typing job at an engineering firm and has just been dumped by her fiancè for her own roommate. Outside of work her only hobby is her local theater group, but even there she's just a general helper and not credited with having any talent at all. Something needs to change in Jinny's life, and it may have to be Jinny herself. A bloody cultured handmaiden...Yes, that's a good description of you. So agreeable, so polite, so damned eager to please. These are Ray's words to Jinny the night he confesses he's gotten her roommate, Emily, pregnant. Ray had apparently found Emily a more willing bedmate, and he reminds Jinny that things might have worked out had she been more cooperative. Thinking this over after Ray's departure, Jinny recalls the past year with a sigh. Her experiences with men have been disasters. Jinny's lonely life -- working the day away at her desk and sitting alone in her tiny apartment at night practicing French and listening to her radio -- seems destined to continue indefinitely, until one day the owner of the firm, Mr. Henderson, calls her into his office. Known to be a devil of a man who works longer and harder than everyone else, Bob Henderson seems an unlikely candidate to change Jinny's life. When she's called to do typing for him she's terrified but refuses to cower like the other secretaries and ends up earning his respect and affection. On the same day, Hal Campbell, leading man in her theater group, goes out of his way to take a special interest in Jinny and her personal problems, and she realizes she may not have to be as lonely as she thought. Each of these two men will be an important part of Jinny's changing life, inspiring her to become less of a cultured handmaiden and think more about what she wants, but she's holding out for the perfect man -- one who will treat her like a princess while respecting her beliefs about marriage and her hesitancy to give herself to any man outside those sacred bonds. After a twisting, unpredictable search, in the end Jinny discovers that there just might be someone for everyone after all. The Cultured Handmaiden displays the beloved Catherine Cookson's powers at their fullest and her enduring themes of hardship, love, virtue, and hope. Editorial Reviews From Publishers Weekly It's the 1970s, and 21-year-old Jinny Brownlow has just heard her fiancé pronounce her a cultured handmaiden --slavishly eager to please--and announce he's leaving her for her roommate. What will obedient Brit Jinny do, in these years of women's liberation? Stand up for herself as best she can. She puts her new MO in motion as secretary to Bob Henderson, her gruff, demanding boss as the two engage in friendly banter (You are a cheeky bugger, he tells her), and Henderson's wife and six children soon become like a second family. Meanwhile, Jinny finds herself attracted to kindhearted Hal Campbell, though the twice-divorced actor doesn't appear to have marriage on his mind. Jinny's life is turned upside down again when her boss and his eldest son, Glen, are in an accident that kills both of their spouses. While ministering to the wheelchair-bound senior Henderson, Jinny finds herself drawn to his once wayward son, John. Is he the man of her dreams--or just another cad? In a genre known for predictable plots and even more predictable characters, bestseller Cookson (d. 1998) renders a sharply drawn heroine with scruples and sass in this engaging tale originally published in the U.K. in 1988. Occasionally overwrought prose does little to distract from the story of a woman hoping for romance and respect. (Jan.) Copyright ® Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the cassette edition. From Booklist Jinny Brownlow is alone in the world after her mother and father pass away. They were everything to her, and now she is bereft of any sense of assertiveness. She has a job in the typing pool and helps out with productions at the local theater, and in both realms she is a doormat. It isn't until her fiance leaves her that she slowly undergoes a sea change. Jinny is out of step with the rest of British society in the seventies: she believes in remaining chaste until marriage. That's why her fiance left, and this comes up again and again as she makes attempts to find herself. As with any good tale, just as Jinny seems to be headed in the right direction, the rug gets pulled out from under her. An older Cookson title released for the first time in the U.S., its subject matter may seem at first glance to be a bit dated, but it is, in fact, a jolly good read, rich in timeless and universal truths. Maria Hatton Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the cassette edition. Review Catherine Cookson's novels are about hardship, the intractability of life and of individuals, the struggle first to survive and next to make sense of one's survival. Humour, toughness, resolution, and generosity are Cookson virtues, in a world which she often depicts as cold and violent. Her novels are weighted and driven by her own early experiences of illegitimacy and poverty. This is what gives them power. In the specialised world of women's popular fiction, Cookson has created her own territory. -- Helen Dunmore, The Times (London) Whenever the desire for entertaining fiction must be quenched, a Catherine Cookson novel...should prove an excellent resource. -- The Philadelphia Inquirer --This text refers to the cassette edition. About the Author Catherine Cookson lived in Northumberland, England, the setting of many of her international bestsellers. Born in Tyne Dock, she was the illegitimate daughter of an impoverished woman, Kate, whom she was raised to believe was her older sister. She began to work in the civil service but eventually moved south to Hastings, where she met and married a local grammar school master. Although she was originally acclaimed as a regional writer, in 1968 her novel The Round Tower won the Winifred Holtby Award, her readership quickly spread worldwide, and her many bestselling novels established her as one of the most popular contemporary authors. After receiving an OBE in 1985, Catherine Cookson was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1993. She died shortly before her ninety-second birthday, in June 1998, having completed 104 works. --This text refers to the cassette edition.