The complex friendship between a black housekeeper and her Jewish employer is at the heart of Hoffman's prize-winning novel about life in the civil rights era South Nebraska Waters is black. Vivian Gold is Jewish. In an Alabama kitchen where, for nearly thirty years, they share cups of coffee, fret over their children, and watch the civil rights movement unfold out their window, and into their homes, they are like family--almost. As Nebraska makes her way, day in and out, to Vivian's house to cook and help tend the Gold children, the "almost" threatens to widen into a great divide. The two women's husbands affect their relationship, as do their children, Viv Waters and Benjamin Gold, born the same year and coming of age in a changing South. The bond between the women both strengthens and frays. Winner of the Lillian Smith Book Award and Alabama Library Association Award for fiction, Roy Hoffman's Almost Family explores the relationship that begins when one person goes to work for another, and their friendship--across lines of race, income, and religion--develops degrees of understanding yet growing misunderstanding.
I was looking for a good book, when I stumbled upon this one. I must have read this book within a week for I couldn't put it down. The characters are so real, its hard to believe this is a book of fiction. Almost Family is about A black maid named Nebraska Waters, and her employer Vivian Gold, and thier friendship. It mentions the struggles and joys they share. And the similarities they share, though they are very diffrent. You see their relationship not only through them, but through their children and through their acts to one another while overcoming a world of prejiduce. Its a book with vivid images and plots. The ending surprised me, but I was not ashamed. I recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a book that gives a detailed explenation of what life was like in the deep south, during the Civil Rights movement.
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