I’m leading a Zoom book club with friends living in Texas and Oklahoma. Finding the right book for the monthly discussions is both a privilege and a joy, yet it is also work! I must read the book to determine if it makes a good fit for our group. Oh, dear! I must read the book! You can see that I jest since reading is a primary function of my life. Recently, I read The Downstairs Girl by Stacey Lee. I do think it is a good fit for our discussion and will choose it for the near future.
The Downstairs Girl has been a Reese’s Book Club YA Pick and a New York Times Bestseller. Those accolades were enough to persuade me to read the book. Still, the book had to stand on its own for me to choose it for one of our discussions. It does that—stand on its own.
Seventeen-year-old Jo Kuan is a talented hatmaker, but Mrs. English, her cruel employer, fires her without warning one day. Not only does Mrs. English fire Jo, but she tells Jo she has told the other hatmakers in town they should not hire Jo because she is Asian and because she is a “saucebox.” Old Gin, the man who has raised Jo, tells Jo she can return to the Payne household as a lady’s maid to Caroline, the Payne’s cruel and mean-spirited daughter. Jo grew up with Caroline because Old Gin works as a stable hand and horse trainer for the Paynes. Even as a child, Caroline was often cruel to Jo and frequently reminded Jo of “her place,” that is lower in status than Caroline’s.
Readers will sympathize with Jo and Old Gin because they encounter racial prejudice every day in Atlanta, GA, just as their Black counterparts do. Jo and Old Gin barely get by on their minuscule wages. In fact, they live under the Bells’ print shop, a fact known only to Jo and Old Gin. The Bells own and run a local newspaper. Where Jo and Old Gin live used to be a hiding place for slaves attempting to escape. There is a “listening tube” to the underground space from the print shop above.
Jo has used that listening tube to eavesdrop on conversations. Those conversations have helped her improve her English and understand the world around her. Now, she overhears the Bells talking about the need to raise their subscriptions by 2000 to stay in business. Of course, if the Bells close the newspaper and sell their property, Jo and Old Gin will be in jeopardy of losing their secret dwelling.
Jo hears Mrs. Bell and her son Nathan talking about ways to improve subscriptions. They believe adding an agony aunt column will help garner a larger readership. Jo, the saucebox, sees an opportunity to use her wit and opinions to help the Bells and thus keep her home. She writes a letter and slips it anonymously into the Bells’ letterbox. She says she would like to contribute regular letters but remain anonymous. She doesn’t even want to be paid.
Jo’s columns do begin to increase the subscriptions, and she also receives many letters in response to the column. As Jo works for the Paynes as Caroline’s maid, she listens to conversations and uses some of what she hears in her columns for the Bells. Other problems arise when Billy Riggs, local criminal, begins threatening Old Gin and Jo.
Without giving away any spoilers, I will say that The Downstairs Girl offers readers several surprises that fit well into the story. It also has a satisfying ending that does not neatly tie up all the pieces, but it gives readers pleasure. Book club members will have much to discuss including racial prejudice and its terrors, education, what it means to be a “saucebox,” and genuine care for one another.
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