The Residence: Inside the Private World of the White House
#1 New York Times Bestseller
The inspiration for the Netflix series streaming now!
“A revealing look at life inside the White House. . . it’s Downton Abbey for the White House staff.”— The Today Show
A remarkable history with elements of both In the President’s Secret Service and The Butler, The Residence offers an intimate account of the service staff of the White House, from the Kennedys to the Obamas.
America’s First Families are unknowable in many ways. No one has insight into their true character like the people who serve their meals and make their beds every day. In her runaway bestseller, former White House correspondent Kate Andersen Brower pulls back the curtain on the world’s most famous address. Full of stories and details by turns dramatic, humorous, and heartwarming, The Residence reveals daily life in the White House as it is really lived through the voices of the maids, butlers, cooks, florists, doormen, engineers, and others who tend to the needs of the President and First Family.
These dedicated professionals maintain the six-floor mansion’s 132 rooms, 35 bathrooms, 28 fireplaces, three elevators, and eight staircases, and prepare everything from hors d’oeuvres for intimate gatherings to meals served at elaborate state dinners. Over the course of the day, they gather in the lower level’s basement kitchen to share stories, trade secrets, forge lifelong friendships, and sometimes even fall in love.
Combining incredible first-person anecdotes from extensive interviews with scores of White House staff members—many speaking for the first time—with archival research, Kate Andersen Brower tells their story. She reveals the intimacy between the First Family and the people who serve them, as well as tension that has shaken the staff over the decades. From the housekeeper and engineer who fell in love while serving President Reagan to Jackie Kennedy’s private moment of grief with a beloved staffer after her husband’s assassination to the tumultuous days surrounding President Nixon’s resignation and President Clinton’s impeachment battle, The Residence is full of surprising and moving details that illuminate day-to-day life at the White House.
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Community Reviews
It seems like I am on a roll with books whose premise, theme, or subject should be SO good, but yet is so poor. From the introduction, I was confused by this books jumping around from administration to administration, different events (inauguration/move in day to state dinners, etc.), and the different people involved. I think this book could have really been improved if they had organized it by time period, or by room/area of the white house, or even by each featured worker - anything the the stream of consciousness of writing that it seems to be.
I realize that the stories are loosely tied together by the chapter themes, but it jumps around so much, that the stories are diminished, sometimes sounding like nothing more than a footnote.
I'll admit that I was looking for the gossip (like the Carter boys's bongs!), but I was also interested in the running of the house and some of the "behind the scenes" facts that you wouldn't readily know - this could have been pulled together in a way that kept your interest. This book wasn't it for me.
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