This book is set in Louisiana, nearly 40 years before the Civil War. The title of the book has many layers of meaning: Manon Gaudet is the bitter and unhappy wife of a sugar plantation owner who is rapidly descending into bankruptcy; her house slave Sarah who was given to her as a wedding gift in part to get her out of Manon’s parent’s house; the house that is left to her on her mother’s death is scheduled to become her husband’s property, since everything belonging to a woman automatically becomes the property of her husband – she only gets to retain the house due to the death of her husband in a slave uprising.

see the rest of my review here:

https://nordie.wordpress.com/2015/06/24/book-review-property-by-valerie-martin/

Here's what I wrtoe in 2008 about this read: "A different twist to tell the story of American slavery, and the awful pains inflicted. House slave is loved by the a wretched master, but treated most poorly by his unhappy wife." Observation in 2023: certainly many women treated women slaves, regardless of the amount of the husband's attention, very
poorly. ( )

Written in the voice of the "lady of the house," Manon and her thought of her husband, the slaves and the relationships. Set in New Orleans in 1828. There's an uprising and Manon's husband is murdered. Sarah, his mistress slave gave away his hiding place. She fights Manon for escape and Manon is injured.
Sarah is captured and brought back. Manon mentions that night and goes on to say...
pg. 192; I'm sure they all made you feel important, very much the poor helpless victim, and no one asked how you got away or whom you left behind."
Sarah says, "When you gets to the North they invites you to the dining room, and they asks you to sit at the table. Then they offers you a cup of tea, and they asks, 'Does you want cram and sugar?'"
Manon: "And this appealed to you?"
Sarah: "Yes."...."It appealed to me."
Manon considered this image of Sarah. She was dressed in borrowed clothes, sitting stiffly at a bare wooden table while a colorless Yankee woman, her thin hair pulled into a tight bun, served her tea in a china cup. The righteous husband fetched a cushion to make their guest more comfortable. It struck her as perfectly ridiculous. What on earth did they think they were doing?

This book is incredibly thought provoking. ( )

I am uncertain as to what the author intends you to feel about the characters in this book. It is narrated by the wife of a plantation owner, Manon Gaudet. She is clearly not happy in her life or here marriage, comparing her husband unfavourably to both a friend she'd like to have married and her father, who she perceives as having been perfect. IN fact neither man turns out to have been what she imagines they are, and her husband does something quite unexpected that should cause her to revise her opinion - but doesn't. She's too set in her opinions readily change her views. She is also unable to imagine that anyone else can suffer and that the system she is part of is in any way wrong or damaging to the people it makes use of. So at one level you have sympathy for her, but at another she has no sympathy for the slaves on the plantation and that makes her seem unsympathetic.
The tale revolves around Manon and her house slave, Sarah. Manon imagines that she and Sarah share a bond in that they both have cause to hate her husband, as he has had two children on Sarah (one assumes not willingly, based on his other behaviour). But that manages to overlook the fact that Sarah is not free and Manon is unable to see that.
It is a well written book, eye opening, set at a really interesting place. Subject matter is not easy to read and every now and then there is something that brings you up sharp. An excellent book. ( )

En stark berättelse om USA´s slavar på 1800 talet berättad ur en lite annorlunda vinkling från en slavägares hustru. Det är grymt, känslosamt och det känns väldigt äkta. ( )