Rating: 
Summary: Great!! Especially if you have cleaned houses before.
Review: I am not the only one!!! It is reassuring to find out that my experiences aren't anomolies. All the people that Louise worked for I have worked for or still do.
Rating: 
Summary: I liked it, I laughed, I would not want her in MY house!
Review: This book was irresistible to me. I have given it as a gift and I received it as a gift. I could not help laughing out loud in many places and the author sounds like she could be one of my friends. On the other hand, she scares me off because she seems to be so mean about her clients messy lives! Shouldn't there be some code of honor among housecleaners that they don't wipe and tell?
Rating:
Summary: You bring yourself to this book.
Review: It is interesting to read the other reviews of this book. It seems to provoke some EXTREMELY strong reactions, which I didn't think it merited. It was a LITTLE smug, but not nearly as obscene as most of the other readers found it, nor is it the fantastic, comic masterpiece that others think it is. Obviously, it touches some emotional hotspot in some readers. I think that it says something about who we are as Americans that we have such strong reactions one way or another to a look at menial labor. I enjoyed this book, but not enough to read it again, and I read EVERYTHING more than once.
Rating: 
Summary: An unfortunate book
Review: Louise Rafkin seems to find nearly everyone except herself below contempt, whether it's a client or a sibling. She doesn't seem terribly fond of friends, and a potential spiritual advisor gives her "vapid" advice, which she fails to follow in the single test she's given. She despises people who aren't as obsessive-compulsive as she is, and shows no integrity in her work. I can't imagine that anyone would dream of hiring her to clean their homes, or write another book, after this dreadful self-aggrandizement of what must be a very sorry life devoid of trust or true intimacy. The time spent reading this book could be spent doing almost anything else; cleaning your own toilet is more amusing, and you won't feel nearly as dirty afterwards
Rating:
Summary: absolutely funny!
Review: I could hardly put it down. I think the scathing reviews in here can only be those of women or men who have never cleaned homes for a living. Lighten up folks...sheesh!! This was one of the funniest books I've ever read. Though I may not agree with Louise politically, her humor and humanity are wonderful. I have cleaned homes for 5 years. It isn't a "hobby" as some clients would like to think. This made for a delightful evening of laffs. Hey, Louise, when's the video coming? KUDOS, susie melkus
Rating:
Summary: Don't bother buying this insulting, hypocritical book.
Review: THE OCCASIONALLY AMUSING COMMENTS ARE NOT WORTH THE INSULTING ATTITUDE THAT PERSISTS THROUGHOUT THE REST OF THE BOOK.The author can't be pleased: She gets hired to clean a filthy house, she complains. She gets hired to clean a pristine house, she complains. Meanwhile, she NAMES her clients and their locales when describing their shortcomings, and talks openly about her brother's drug-dealing history. She spends WAY too much time divulging other people's private information. She also believes that housekeepers' employers should bring them into the home as guests for social gatherings, an absurd presumption (who invites their mechanic, their doctor, or their plumber to their home?). No wonder she got fired from jobs after divulging clients' names and eccentricities in local newspaper columns.
Rating:
Summary: Witty, funny, clever
Review: Ms. Rafkin is a very smart and funny writer. Who else could take the tedious job of house cleaning and turn it in to such an amusing tale. This book does make me think twice about my OWN house cleaner. Fortunately, Rumanian is the only language she speaks.
Rating:
Summary: this book is satire at its best
Review: I loved the dry wit Ms. Rafkin brings to our dirty laundry. I've always wondered what house cleaners must think about when they are mopping up other people's mess, and now here it is. People may find the book's humor painful, but that's probably because they don't have any sense of humor about themselves (or they thought they had really cleaned up before the cleaner came!).
Rating:
Summary: A wry, whimsical look at the housecleaner's life
Review: This book made me laugh out loud more than once. Ms. Rafkin has a mordant sense of humor but she's also getting at sticky issues of class. Makes you look hard at your attitudes toward hired help. We want to think they're anonymous robots, wiping up our pubic hair and drain scum without glancing at our private artifacts or making judgments about our lifestyle. Other People's Dirt punctures that bubble. I welcomed the chance to travel through the world of those who clean up after our messes. Several of my friends have even used this as a how-to book: taking notes from Ms. Rafkin about how to be more respectful/aware of their housecleaner's difficult work. Read it and chuckle.
Rating:
Summary: Provocative, funny prose with a lot of edge
Review: This book holds very little back, which is just what I like about it. In exactly the same way everyone knows that women grow facial hair but choose not to talk about it, there is something very relieving about the way Rafkin tells it like it is, and about all of us, the cleaners and the cleaned-for alike. Everyone should read this book.
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