"Voices In The House" by Pearl Buck (John Sedges)--Book Review

This is the second of Pearl S. Buck's five pseudonymous novels which she published under the pen name John Sedges.  This novel is also included in the "American Triptych" edition of three of the John Sedges novels and is best bought that way if you intend to buy and read it.  This is a fascinating novel which is completely uncharacteristic of anything else I have ever read by Buck.  The book is set in Manchester, Vermont, in the home of an attorney and his wife who live in a spacious, multi-wing mansion with three servants.  The novel is a story of several conflicts: the conflict between the classes of the rich and their servants; the conflict between immigrants and natural born citizens; the conflict between the rich and the poor in general; the conflict between attorneys and the criminals they represent; and, most importantly, the conflict between men and women, husbands and wives, about their different expectations, desires, and needs regarding their sexual relationships.  The book is considerably shorter than the first John Sedges novel I read and wrote about on this blog, "The Townsman".  This novel, and the other John Sedges novel I just mentioned are completely different in nature from Buck's better Asian novels such as "The Good Earth Trilogy" and "The Living Reed" which is set in Korea.  But it is well worth reading and its complexity of issues are dealt with really well in the roughly 130 pages which she used to tell the story of the wealthy Asher family and their servants, a mother, daughter, and son-in-law of German immigrants.  

The Asher family is composed of the attorney, William Asher, his wife Elinor, and their three children, two sons and a daughter, along with their spouses and the children of one of the sons.  The servants are composed of Bertha, the German immigrant mother who has been with the family for forty years; her daughter Jessica, who grew up in the Asher home except for the period she spent in a Canadian convent when Bertha shipped her there as a young girl due to conflicts between the two of them which is also a major theme in the novel; and Herbert, who is eventually Jessica's husband and serves as the butler and chauffeur for the family.  Jessica's relationships with everyone in her life are contentious and she lives in a fantasy world in which she is naturally entitled to be a part of the rich family and to live in the palatial house of her own right.  Her conflicts with her mother and the Asher's are rooted in this fantasy.  Her conflict with Herbert is rooted in his belief that he is entitled to "my rights" as a married man to have sex at his whim.  A second cousin of Mrs. Asher, Cousin Emma, is eventually the victim of a horrendous murder by having darning needles driven through her eyes into her brain.  After that disclosure, I don't wish to ruin the book by telling you more.  It is well worth reading.  Try to find a copy of the "American Triptych" edition, which I have been told was originally a book club edition, and read all three of the novels it contains. The "American Triptych" edition can usually be located on the major used book websites at a reasonable price. You will not be disappointed.