The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
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Synopsis:
When a white servant girl violates the order of plantation society, she unleashes a tragedy that exposes the worst and best in the people she has come to call her family. Orphaned while onboard ship from Ireland, seven-year-old Lavinia arrives on the steps of a tobacco plantation where she is to live and work with the slaves of the kitchen house. Under the care of Belle, the master's illegitimate daughter, Lavinia becomes deeply bonded to her adopted family, though she is set apart from them by her white skin.
Eventually, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. Lavinia finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds. When she is forced to make a choice, loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare, and lives are put at risk.
My Review:
“You look at those birds. Some of them be brown, some of them be white and black. Do you think when they little chicks, those mamas and papas care about that?”
The Kitchen House is an outstanding, fascinating book about a tobacco plantation at the time of the 19th century. This novel was told with an unusual twist; the story centers on Lavinia, a young girl who is orphaned during her journey to America from Ireland, who becomes an indentured servant on the plantation. She is assigned to the kitchen house to assist Belle, a slave who is also the illegitimate daughter of the plantation’s owner. Lavinia is torn between the slaves who become her family, and the owner and his family who live in the big house.
Though there are many characters in this novel, Grissom writes them in such a distinct way that the reader is always clear on who they are. I’ve often read other novels with an abundance of characters so indistinct from each other I would get them mixed up. This never happened with The Kitchen House. The characters came alive that it would be impossible to get them mixed up. However, most of these complex and beautiful characters are female. It is common for male characters to be flat and unforgivable, but Grissom surprises again with male characters are as complex, if not more so, than her female characters.
The Kitchen House is the book that stays with you, with characters connected deep within the root of person, down to the very essence of humanity. Told in earnest detail, this book is a gritty, realistic look in history, but is also a story of hope, family secrets, acceptance, strong bonds of love and hope, and the bonds that transcend race.
My Rating:
✬✬✬✬✬
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