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Apron Strings (2000)

by Mary Morony(Favorite Author)

3.48 of 5 Votes: 5

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English

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review 1: I really enjoyed this. Pretty quick read. A black house keeper, Ethel, takes care of 3 white children, Helen, Gordy, and a Sallee. The family is one of the few around that is accepting of blacks. The husband and wife start off much in love, but their marriage falls apart and they get divorced and the self-centered mother turns to drink. The story is told from the point of views of Sallee and Ethel.
review 2: In 1958 the Mackey family was comprised of Joe and Virginia Stuart Mackey and their children, daughters Stuart, Salley, and Helen, and son, Gordon. Ethel, the who was the family housekeeper, cook, and babysitter, was also part of the family having worked with Virginia’s family before her marriage. Self-centered Ginny was a socialite who spent her ti... moreme shopping, entertaining, and going to tea parties. Being a mother was not high on her list of priorities though she did expect her children to exhibit good manners and had very high standards for them. Joe had been a lawyer who decided to develop a shopping mall in their town, much to the consternation of many of their neighbors. APRON STRINGS, told primarily from nine-year-old Sallee is a snapshot of events in Virginia during two years near the end of the decade. Family history, primarily about Ginny’s background and Ethel’s story, told mostly in narrative form by Ethel, are interwoven throughout the book. It covers love, racism, divorce and alcoholism. Incidents are presented in an “as-it-happened” order, often lacking the insight one would expect from an adult. Usually, they are talked about, then dropped, as would be typical for a child’s rendition. For example, we hear about the behavior of the man living next door and while we can see the danger, Sallee is aware something is wrong but doesn’t know what or why she feels uncomfortable around him. The story takes place while the south was segregated. The community closed its public schools when it was ordered to integrate them. While the Mackey family has an excellent relationship with Ethel and other Negroes who work for them, Sallee becomes aware of the extreme racism when she says that the cupcakes she brings to the school bake sale were made by Ethel and the way the other children react when their Negro yardman is told to drive the car pool because Ginny is unable to do so. Based on Morony’s personal experiences, APRON STRINGS is honestly written with warmth and humor. Describing one of Ginny’s friends, Sallee noted, “She didn’t just spill out of everything she wore; she spilled on everything she wore, too.” When Gordy realized that “sausage is hog? I thought it was pork. It don’t want to eat a hog.” Ethel commented about one of the men she knew, who could pass for white, that he was called “Black Sam.” She didn’t understand why “But the old folks had some ways that no amount of thinking could make sense of, so most times I didn’ even try. But it did cause a body to wonder.” Morony paints some wonderful word pictures: “Daddy leapt from the rock where he and I were sitting and latched onto Gordy like a hawk on a mouse.” “[The sky] was deeper and bluer than any Crayola sky, no matter how hard you pressed the crayon to the paper.” “My mother blew around the house like a plastic bag in a parking lot.” Frustrated with the talk about desegregation in Washington, Joe told Ginny “They are just monkeying around up there is Washington, using this whole race thing to keep people from focusing on the lack of jobs and the stalled economy.” When Ginny responded that she doesn’t talk to Ethel about current events, Joe said, “Current events? For Christ’s sake, it’s her life!” And one excellent piece of advice: “When a grown-up told you not to worry, you had better start.” It was sometimes hard to keep track of all the characters and often I wanted more information about incidents, but that wasn’t important to Sallee so I had to remember that it was her story, not mine. This book was a free Amazon download. less

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