Other People's Dirt

Louise Rafkin's conversational memoir is a deeply textured and enriching look at the world of the housecleaner. Unassuming and prim, she expostulates brightly, sometimes plaintive, other times joking, but always moving forward with the speed and efficiency of a polishing professional. Her voice is musical, offering the maturity of a woman in her thirties and the impishness of youth. The cleaner's life is cyclical and episodic. Each new job offers a slightly different perspective on the same set of chores. So it is that she tackles such disparate topics as housecleaning as an erotic fetish, and a Japanese sect that cleans houses as part of its religion. The cover art features an upright mop held like a flag in a parade, quite apropos for this celebration of the everyday ceremony of cleaning. After listening, I surprised my wife by scrubbing the bathroom. J.W. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine