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Editorial Review Product Description
James Newman was a brilliant mathematician, the man who introduced the mathematical concept “googol” and “googolplex” (aka “google” and “googleplex”) to the world, and a friend of Einstein’s. He was also a notorious philanderer with an insatiable appetite for women and fast cars, a man who challenged intellectual and emotional limits, and a man of excess who oftentimes fell victim to his own anxiety.
Jenniemae Harrington was an uneducated, illiterate African American maid from Alabama who began working for the Newman family in 1948—and who, despite her devout Christianity, played the illegal, underground lottery called “policy,” which she won with astonishing frequency. Though highly implausible, these two dissimilar individuals developed a deep and loyal friendship, largely because of their common love of numbers and their quick wits.
Theirs was a friendship that endured even during an era when segregation still prevailed. For James, Jenniemae provided a particular ease and shared sense of irreverent humor that he found difficult to duplicate with his beautiful, intelligent, and artistic wife, Ruth. And when the Newman home was darkened by the tensions of the political climate during the Cold War, or by James’s affairs, or by Ruth’s bouts of depression, it was Jenniemae who maintained the point of gravity, caring for the family’s children when their parents were often lost in their own worlds.
From Jenniemae’s perspective, James offered more than just a steady income. He became an unlikely and loyal friend. He taught her to read, and he drove her to and from his upscale suburban house and her home in the impoverished section of Washington, D.C. (and sometimes, much to her chagrin, in his Rolls-Royce), after she had been raped by a white bus driver. Intrigued by her uncanny wins at the lottery, James even installed a second telephone line in the house so that Jenniemae could keep track of her bets—a decision that raised a few eyebrows at the time.
It is this extraordinary relationship that the Newmans’ daughter, Brooke, reveals in Jenniemae & James, as she elegantly weaves together the story of two very distinct and different people who each had a significant impact on her upbringing. In doing so, she also paints a vivid political and cultural picture of the time—when the world was terrified by the possibility of nuclear war; when America was reeling from the McCarthy hearings; when technological advances like televisions, satellites, and interstate highways were changing the country; when America was just beginning to venture into Vietnam; and when African Americans were still considered second-class citizens with limited rights, before the explosion of racial tensions in the early 1960s.
Jenniemae & James is an inspiring, heartwarming memoir about friendship and love across the racial barrier. ... Read more Customer Reviews (24) 
It's an okay read
There's nothing to complain about this book. It's just that I can't get too excited about any of it. I can't imagine having another person feel so indebted to my family that she would return to work the very day after giving birth. Mr. or Mrs. Bossman should have put her in the car and driven her right back home. That's practically voluntary slavery, such a feeling of indebtedness and/or responsibility to an employer. No one should have to work to raise another person's family and care for their home twelve hours a day, and I wouldn't feel comfortable bragging about it now. I find it insulting that Brooke dearest seems to be impressed and surprised that Jenniemae was commonly intelligent in spite of having no formal education. On second thought, I guess there is a lot to complain about in this book. The book is written pleasantly enough, but I just downgraded it by two stars.
Jenniemae is a little too magical.
Brooke Newman's childhood is undoubtedly a rich subject, but the author only hints at it's depths. A successful, largely self made bisexual mother, a renowned father with a weakness for women and a friendship with Einstein, and an invisible sibling combine for quite a wealth of source material. By narrowing her focus to her father's relationship with the housekeeper Newman is trying to live up to her subtitle of "A Memoir In Black & White". While I believe the love and the relationships are very real (my aunt is of a similar age and speaks of her own childhood housekeeper often) the story is white. Jenniemae never steps out from behind the apron unless it is in a point of crisis that James can help resolve. I don't want to in any way disparage the love that Newman obviously felt for the Jenniemae, but as a reader I am frustrated by a lack of information. The story of James & Jenniemae is told through romantic and imagined vignettes, conversations in private to illustrate points in the narrative. It doesn't feel real. As a reader, I want to seek out Jenniemae's family and find out what they thought of the situation, what their views on various events were. Did Jenniemae's daughter agree to the content of the book? Does Jenniemae's family view the relationship as something deeper than long time employer and employee? Ultimately, Jenniemae lived in service to James. He treated her well, he respected her, his daughter loved her, his wife comes to value her - but who is Jenniemae when the image of employee is removed? How does her daughter remember James? Also invisible is the author's brother, who may have asked to be excluded from the work, the author doesn't say.
Jenniemae and James is more the author's interpretation of the relationship between her father and his housekeeper than a true biography of the two people. It lacks nuance or depth, but it has a good heart. You feel that Newman wants you to understand how important these people were to her and, in her opinion, to each other. She urges the reader to remember them kindly through her narrative, but it is too deeply rooted in convention to bring Jenniemae into focus. I would suggest this as an excellent book for readers younger than the author, who may not have a family history that includes a figure like Jenniemae. It is an excellent portrait of how the family viewed the help, the way they saw the relationship, and it would be an excellent counterpoint to a similar book from the other point of view. My aunt could have written large parts of this tale, about her own father and his employee. Fictionalized as the conversations must necessarily be, the emotion of them rings true for a child's experience.
First class book
I am a frequent reader of memoirs and consider myself a good judge of which ones are exceptional - and this memoir by Brooke Newman about her father and their African American housekeeper is unquestionably one of the best written and most interesting memoirs I have yet read.The story is fascinating. The interweaving of the social and political history is wonderful, and grounds the reader in time and place. The dialogue is pitch perfect and the characters come to life as each scene is presented.This book is a must read for anyone who enjoys a well written book that is based on historical events.
A Heartfelt Love Story
This book is a touching story about two completely different people who have a common love of numbers.The story is beautifully written and takes twists and turns that keeps you turning the pages.I started and finished the book within 24 hours because I could not put it down.By the end of the story I was emotionally involved and felt for both Jenniemae and James.A truly enjoyable read that I will be recommending to all of my friends.
A Mathematician and his Housekeeper
Brooke Newman gives us a close-up picture of the less-than-perfectly-functional family she grew up in.I can't call it dysfunctional, because as nearly as I can make out, Brooke, at least, has turned out ok.Her parents, James and Ruth Newman, were respectively a brilliant and successful mathematician not unduly influenced by societal norms and a not-so-successful would-be poetess with a day job as a remedial reading teacher.As parents, they were loving but tended to be, as Brooke put it, preoccupied.
James departed from custom in at least two ways: (1) in addition to his wife, Ruth, he had a nearly unending sequence of women in his life, several of which (one at a time) lived in along with Ruth and the children, and (2) he was much more concerned about Jenniemae Harrington, the family's black nanny and housekeeper, than was customary.Three examples:
(1)He had a phone installed in Jenniemae's room, for her use in playing the numbers.The phone installer clearly disapproved of providing a phone for a black servant; such a thing just wasn't done!But James insisted.
(2)When he learned that the driver of the city bus Jenniemae rode home from work had raped her, he insisted on driving her to and from work each day thereafter.When he found out that her daughter had been badly scalded,he insisted on taking the baby to the hospital, at his expense, which almost certainly saved Lilac Belle's life.
(3)When he gave the commencement address at Johns Hopkins in 1965, he invited his family including Jenniemae.She was one of the very few blacks (probably the only one) in the audience.
Brooke has shown her family members (except her brother Jeff, whom she barely mentions) to be admirable in many ways despite their faults.For me, at least, James Newman is now a real person instead of just a famous name.
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