Rating: 
Summary: A Colorful Memoir
Review: I have to wonder if those who made negative comments all finished the book. Is it an offense to be honest? So she shows a bit of attitude! I've never had the experiences of hiring a cleaner or being one so I learned some things about the variety of expectations and attitudes of those who hire. I was not at all offended by the author's independent spirit--this memoir is colorful but its strength comes from the author's trying to better understand the work she's engaged in. I'm interested in reading more by Louise Rafkin.
Rating: 
Summary: Another rich overeducated writer slumming it for a book deal
Review: This author grew up with maid service, she can't seem to understand why her former maid didn't want to "talk shop". I suspect that 99 percent of other maids have more personal ethics then this woman. The fact that anyone loved this book is appalling to me. I won't go into repetitive details about why this book is so bad, it is all there in other people's comments, do yourself a favor and save the cash you would have spent.
Rating:
Summary: Charming observations
Review: I thoroughly enjoyed Louise's new book. Her writing always manages to make the mundane details of ordinary existence sublimely transcendent.
Rating: 
Summary: not "adventurous" enough
Review: I thought this book would be more about what the subtitle described: "A Housecleaner's Curious Adventures." It wasn't. As someone else said, she tries to give overviews of a lot of areas at least tangentially related to cleaning -- minorities, a Japanese spiritual commune -- but jumps from one to the next without exploring any of them fully. And if you're reading it to find out the "spy secrets" she can supposedly figure out about her clients, you've learned all you're going to get on the cover blurbs. She knows how to write, but apparently can't decide what to write about.
Rating:
Summary: Wow! Such uproar over a little cleaning book.
Review: Amusing, especially in the beginning, but can't decide where it wants to go. Uneven execution of a clever topic. I appreciate the acecdotes, however, because I too am a cleaner. My clients have nicknames such as "Hair House" (too many dogs,) and "Witness Protection Program" (generic decor.) Therefore, I find her rantings funny much in the way a server finds commentary on the restaurant business a hoot. This book is not going to appeal to everyone, but doesn't warrent the outrage it generated. My main gripe with this book, and I have a few, is her half-attempt to explore the role of minorities in domestic employment. Search as she does, she never seems to find why, as an educated, white woman she fits so neatly into the cleaning business. Could it be that ultimately she sees herself as an outsider, perhaps even a minority? Maybe the answer lies in her lesbianism. We that are gay often fall into the non-traditional job role. It would have been interesting to see her explore this issue instead of conspicuously dance around it. In closing, to those finding it unreasonable/unacceptable for domestic help to ridicule employers I must ask: what planet are you from?
Rating:
Summary: Appalling!
Review: Wow! Read this book and I guarantee you will never trust any stranger to set foot in your house and "clean". Apparently, the actual act of housecleaning is beneath Louise Rafkin, as she feels the need to self-describe herself as an "academic" several times throughout the book. And, there are several references to her drug-dealing brother...um, what did this have to do with anything? Scary, disturbing, disgusting. Louise Rafkin gives this whole industry a black eye. Shame on her! The reader reviewer from Brooklyn, NY sums up the atrocities of this book perfectly...
Rating:
Summary: This is one incredible housecleaner's manifesto
Review: I am also a writer who cleaned houses for a long time because it gives you flexible hours and a fairly high rate of pay. Cleaning and domestic work is always so invisible to the world of public notice, and it yet it's the kind of feminine work that sees everything, the ultimate voyeur. Louise Rafkin not only had all these kind of intimate observations, she also writes about it so poetically, and with such a spiritual interest in the nature of "cleaning up" that it really rises above some naughty maid's tell-all.
Rating:
Summary: Repulsive. A mean-spirited cleaner who wallows in dirt.
Review: Every time we hire a new person to work in our home -- plumber, babysitter, cleaner, or anyone else -- we worry. Even if they seem honest and present the best references, we can't help but wonder -- are we truly safe with this stranger in the house? In the case of anyone naïve enough to employ Louise Rafkin as a housecleaner, the answer should have been an unequivocal no. Rafkin consistently betrayed her employers' trust, having sex in their beds, trying on their clothes, pilfering their possessions, cruelly ridiculing them and exposing their most intimate secrets. Rafkin's book reveals her contempt for her employers (she admits that she overcharges and frequently only pretends to clean), for her family (she discloses her brother's drug use and prison record; she visits her family's former maid, near death, and attempts to goad her into mean-spirited gossip, "I wanted ... to find out secrets about the people in my squeaky-clean sixties neighborhood. I even wanted to hear that my mom was difficult to work for") and her belief in her own superiority. The only dirt Rafkin refuses to expose? The truth about herself and why she is really cleaning houses. Raised by college-educated parents in a comfortable, middle class suburb, downwardly-mobile Rafkin hardly lacks employment options. Her only explanation is that there are few jobs for writers who can't type and can't spell -- hardly plausible for someone equipped with an advanced degree in literature. As Rafkin skips from city to city, job to job, lover to lover, it appears that she might have focused on cleaning up after others as a way to avoid dealing with the raging mess inside herself.
Rating:
Summary: What's the point?
Review: This book is filled with anecdotes that go nowhere and aren't funny. The stories are random and poorly written. I wasted my time.
Rating:
Summary: Why you should never let anyone clean your house
Review: I was struck by the snide, mean-spirited tone of this book. The only thing I learned is that, yes, my fears are correct, housecleaners will mess with your stuff and make value judgments about you. There is very little fun in this book and a lot of judgmental writing, which frankly, I could live without.
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