'All-Electric' Narratives: Time-Saving Appliances and Domesticity in American Literature, 1945--2020, by Rachele Dini - A book review

A review of Rachele Dini's book, “ALL-ELECTRIC” NARRATIVES: TIME-SAVING APPLIANCES AND DOMESTICITY IN AMERICAN LITERATURE, 1945–2020 (Bloomsbury 2020), where the author turns her attention to the phenomenon of electrification and the meaning of time-saving electrical appliances in American life and politics. She focuses on objects like refrigerators, toasters, vacuum cleaners, irons, and so on to shed light on “the racialized, gendered, and classist narratives long used to promote the ‘all-electric’ home and its gadgets” (2). Throughout, she concentrates on literature’s dealings with those narratives. Her topic is American literature’s engagement with electrical appliances from the post-war period to our day.