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Description
Kathleen Grissom, New York Times bestselling author of the highly anticipated Glory Over Everything, established herself as a remarkable new talent with The Kitchen House, now a contemporary classic. In this gripping novel, a dark secret threatens to expose the best and worst in everyone tied to the estate at a thriving plantation in Virginia in the decades before the Civil War. Orphaned during her passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, and serve food, while guided by the quiet strength and love of her new family. In time, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master’s opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart from Belle and the other slaves. Through the unique eyes of Lavinia and Belle, Grissom’s debut novel unfolds in a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of class, race, dignity, deep-buried secrets, and familial bonds. Read more
Publisher : Atria Books
Publication date : February 2, 2010
Edition : First Edition
Language : English
Print length : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 1439153663
ISBN-13 : 66
Item Weight : 15 ounces
Dimensions : 5.25 x 0.9 x 8 inches
Book 1 of 2 : Kitchen House
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Top Amazon Reviews
Format: Paperback
This is chick-lit-historical-fiction at it's best. Every turn of the page is murder, mayhem, rape, and forbidden love affairs. Everything you need to get the blood bubbling. The Kitchen House follows two female protagonists, Lavinia, a white indentured servant from Ireland, and Belle, a beautiful half-black half-white slave. The story is written in alternating chapters, with Lavinia's chapters being considerably longer than Belle's. Belle acts as Lavinia's mother figure when she is first brought to the plantation. Lavinia is happy with her black family, but as she grows older and more beautiful, outside forces tear her from her family and thrust her into the white world she doesn't understand and doesn't feel connected to. Many minor characters are killed, sold, raped, and beaten throughout Lavinia's life, breaking her heart and ours each time. Belle, on the other hand, is hated by the master's family because they think she is his mistress. In reality, she is his daughter. We also follow Belle's sad story through both her and Lavinia's eyes. To try and sum up all the details and complexities of the relationships between the many characters would just confuse, so that's all the summary I will attempt. I enjoyed this book very much, compelled to stay up late nights flipping through pages with a hunger I haven't felt in a long time. Grissom writes in a beautiful southern tone throughout the novel, and her use of detail and observations are compelling. However, I am aware that my love of this novel may be mostly because of how much action and violence is laced throughout, and my love of it feels a little cheap. 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 that I would get them mixed up. This never happened with The Kitchen House. The characters came alive so fully that it would be impossible to get them mixed up. However, the majority of these complex and beautiful characters are female, as it goes with chick-lit. It is common for male characters to be flat and unforgivable, but Grissom surprises again with male characters that are as complex, if not more so, than her female characters. Marshall, an especially complex character, does the most horrible acts to everyone around him. And yet, the reader can't help but feel sorry for him, knowing his twisted past. We watch Marshall as he turns from innocent child to sadistic monster, and his fall from grace is even more compelling at times than Lavinia's narrative. One aspect of character development I was disappointed with was how pure and good Lavinia was. "With the heart of a child" as she is often described. We are the closest with her and her thoughts as the majority of the book is from her p.o.v. , yet she lacks the depth a lot of the other characters have. She is portrayed as an angel that just loves everyone. The only time we see her off her pedestal is during a drug-induced escapism she uses to get away from her miserable life- something we don't blame her for, and a short period of time when she harbors resentment for an old friend for sleeping with her husband. Again, can't really blame her. She even justifies her feelings to herself, acknowledging that she is angry with the girl because she can't be angry with her husband.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2010 by pothostea
Format: Paperback
What in the world could a Canadian white author know about pre-Civil War plantation life? Quite a lot, actually, as Kathleen Grissom makes clear in her excellent, gripping novel, “The Kitchen House “. Set in Virginia between the years of 1791 and 1810, the story centers on Lavinia, an orphaned Irish servant, and Belle, the mixed-race slave who takes young Lavinia under her wing in the kitchen house. There, amidst a rich cast of characters, the Irish girl makes her home and finds a new family in the slaves who love her. As a white servant, Lavinia is treated differently from the others by the plantation owners up at the Big House. She is allowed to be tutored alongside the master’s children, and when she comes of age she is sent to Philadelphia to live with the family of her mistress’s sister. There, she learns the graceful art of becoming a lady. However, she remains homesick for the people she calls family, the slaves of the Tall Oaks plantation. After the plantation owner dies, his son Marshall takes over. By this time Lavinia has returned to Tall Oaks as Marshall’s new wife. She watches with horror as her cruel, alcoholic husband threatens to destroy the lives of those she loves, including her beloved Belle as well as Mama Mae, the woman Lavinia calls “Mama”. As a reader, I knew that I was in the hands of a deft storyteller by the seamless way the author wove in the details of early nineteenth century plantation life without interfering with the true story, that of Lavinia and her slave family. I found myself caring for almost all of the characters, even feeling sorry at times for hardened, drunken Marshall. Each time I picked up the book, I became absorbed to the point where I had difficulty setting it down to do other things. The author excels in character, plot, and pacing. Her writing style is clear and heartfelt, and it is obvious to me that she has done a great deal of research into the time period and the realities of slave living. As I mentioned before, the author Kathleen Grissom is a white Canadian, which makes her achievement all the more remarkable. However, if you believe as I do, that the task of caring writers is to bridge the great divide between those who differ from one another, then Kathleen Grissom has done her job.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2022 by MLS
Format: Kindle
Can you imagine being in such a frightful shock that you don’t know who you are or where you came from? Now imagine that scenario as an orphaned 7-year-old indentured servant, with an Irish accent unlike the thick southern one that you can barely understand that surrounds you. This is the terrifying realization for Lavinia, who was thrust to work the house kitchen with other slaves in the late 1700’s in Virginia. Feeling isolated and confused, her fellow slaves open there arms to this sad girl, when she is ready, and take her in as though she were one of their own. In time she comes to accept them, but she is constantly put in the middle of deciding to choose her new family and being indentured for the rest of her life or for education and freedom. One would think education and freedom, but with that come other costs. Once a free white woman she would not be able to share the family bond that she so cherished with her fellow slaves, at least not openly. I had a hard time putting this one down and its story has remained with me since finishing. The characters were so tangible for me that I honestly had the most realistic dream last night that I was there and I loved these people. I litereally felt like I was a part of the book, stuck in the pages and living the life of Lavinia. The characters had so much depth that they just took me along with them. The only downside for me was I had a hard time understanding one of the characters. He seemed to have been traumatized as a child but the situations surrounding him were not very clear nor were his motives. But I will say that it didn’t take away from the intensity of the book for me. I had absolutely no problems looking over this bit of confusion and just came up with my own ideas. This can be seen as a positive, however, because it intensified my engagement toward the book. I feel like I am better for having read this novel and that is pretty miraculous in itself. I highly recommend this exceptional book about love, acceptance, and loyalty. Yes, there was also deceit, hate, and fear, but that wasn’t the focus for me nor do I think that it was intended for that purpose. I feel the negativity in this story was strong in exposing how love conquers all the nasty emotions. This one softened that part of my heart that can sometimes become a bit hard and for that I am forever grateful for having read it.
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Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2014 by Jenna Frye
Format: Kindle
I really, really enjoyed this book. It was published back in 2010 but somehow I missed the boat until now! I adore stories of the antebellum south. There is such richness (yet contrast) in the race cultures, the pomp and circumstance of society and the desolation that could (and did) occur on the plantations. This book captures ALL of that. From what I know of this era, the story is very accurate and realistic. Additionally, Grissom does not shy away from the unseemly aspects of the period: the abysmal treatment of slaves, the commonality of both consensual and non-consensual relations between slave and master and the overuse of “laudanum” (just to name a few). The story takes place in the early 1800’s, before the Civil War and alternates narration between Belle (a slave who is also the secret illegitimate daughter of the plantation's owner) and Lavinia (a young girl who is orphaned during her passage to America from Ireland, who becomes an indentured servant on the plantation). Grissom’s writing is phenomenal and very well researched. She never strays from periodic specific dialect and diction, on both the parts of the slaves and the high society folk. I found it highly transportive and entertaining! Another impressive aspect is the character development. There are at least 10+ “primary” characters and they’re all highly evolved with individual arcs. There isn’t a dull one in the bunch! In Sum: I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys the antebellum south and/or a page turner that will captivate you to the end and likely stay with you long after the last page. NOTE: I gave this 4.5 stars (instead of 5) because I wanted a TINY bit more from the ending. It’s a great ending but leaves a few unanswered questions. Good news...there is a sequel I’ve heard great things about called “Glory Over Everything.” Description: Orphaned during her passage from Ireland, young, white Lavinia arrives on the steps of the kitchen house and is placed, as an indentured servant, under the care of Belle, the master’s illegitimate slave daughter. Lavinia learns to cook, clean, and serve food, while guided by the quiet strength and love of her new family. In time, Lavinia is accepted into the world of the big house, caring for the master’s opium-addicted wife and befriending his dangerous yet protective son. She attempts to straddle the worlds of the kitchen and big house, but her skin color will forever set her apart from Belle and the other slaves. Through the unique eyes of Lavinia and Belle, Grissom’s debut novel unfolds in a heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful story of class, race, dignity, deep-buried secrets, and familial bonds.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2021 by Carpool Book Club
Format: Paperback
Author Kathleen Grissom has given us an extraordinary book. "The Kitchen House" is the story of two women, one white and one black, but is a much bigger story than just families, black and white, and slave and free. "The Kitchen House "takes us up front and personal, face to face with those who populate a Virginia tobacco plantation late in the ninettenth century. There, we meet the beauty and the love of family and the ugliness and cruelty of damaged people of both races. The story opens with two white children whose parents have died on a ship headed for America. After the parents die, the captain indentures the children. The boy's whereabouts are lost to us, but the girl child is taken to the captain's plantation where she is put to work , despite her color (Irish-pale skin and carrot-colored hair), with slaves. In that milieu, author Grissom shows us the lives of those, the slaveholders and the bondaged, who form the backbone and do the labor responsible for a profitable tobacco plantation. As young Lavinia learns her role--for much of the book she does the work--as a slave, and is unaware that she is not a slave. The plot is further complicated by the cruelty almost demanded to keep human beings in chains a well as the emotional and physical price of doing so. Frequently harsh is the sexual license granted to masters with their powerless chattel, as is not infrequent drug and alcohol abuse. What is truly amazing about this book is that the author holds all these complicated strands together without becomng maudlin or melodramatic--the characters are well developed and grow with the plot. Thus the believability of this character-driven novel keeps us turning pages, holding our breaths to see what happens next. It is the development of characters that most fascinates me about "The Kitchen House". Author Grissom, with a profound understanding of human psyche and motivation, slowly skillfully builds her characters in ways that are never implausable and never cardboard, all good or all bad. When they are bad or good, we understand why they are so, even when we despise what they do. Her uncanny use of "voice"", unerringly accurate, is always just right, never off key. She accomplishes this partially by presenting the character stories in alternative chapters as if by different characters. This device allows her to present each of them in their own words and points of view. When that bonds with empathy, the reader is held spellbound, locking into the narrative, rooting for the success of the novel's protagonist and cursing the less than admirable villains. I wholeheartedly recommend Kathlesn Grissom's superb novel, "The Kitchen House" for all those who enjoy well-crafted, faithfully presented history in a gripping tale of familial love and relationships among people in a slaveholding society. Brava! Five Stars! And more if the system offered higher ratings.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 21, 2010 by Jim Duggins, Ph.D.
Format: Kindle
This is the second book about a slave family that I've recently read. The first was Breena Clarke's fine novel, Stand the Storm. Both deal with Black families struggling to care for each other and to cope under a system of slavery that deprives them of power and recognition of their status as human beings. Both books also depict the complications in the lives of slaves who are half-white, the frequent result when slave owners and overseers took advantage of slave women. (I was drawn to this theme right now because my own first novel - As Far as Blood Goes, about a fugitive slave who becomes a doctor - also cast the protagonist as his master's son. I wrote it over 20 years ago, but have just finished editing it for Amazon Kindle formatting.) As Breena Clarke won some renown as a writer when her first book was featured on Oprah's Book Club, I wondered if Kathleen Grissom's novel could "compete" in my estimation. Actually I found The Kitchen House the more compelling. Once I'd read the free sample on my Kindle, I immediately pressed the Buy button and could barely put the book down till I came to the last page. I don't mean this review as a comparison of the two novels, but will mention that the family of seamstresses and tailor in Stand the Storm, are the property of a master who brutally rapes and impregnates nearly every female slave on his plantation, selling his own offspring with impunity. By contrast, the situation at Tall Oaks plantation, where The Kitchen House is set, is more nuanced. Though I hesitate to take issue with Clarke, I found Grissom's historical depiction more believable. Cap'n Pyke, the plantation owner in The Kitchen House, does have a child by one of his slaves. But the captain is at bottom a well meaning man, though one whose vision is limited by his times and the slave-based society he has grown up in. So he genuinely cares for his daughter, Belle, yet shunts her aside when he finally brings home a wife at the age of 40. Belle has been brought up in the "big house" - the plantation house -- till age seven by her white grandma (Cap'n Pyke's mother), who has accepted her as a grandchild. But when the captain brings home the wife he hopes will take over the reins of the plantation after his mother's death, he has Belle abruptly evicted from this home. Now, as cook for the big house, she presides over the kitchen house, which also serves as her home. (In fine Southern houses of the period the kitchen was located in a separate building.) And when two Irish immigrants, on the ship Cap'n Pyke owns and is captain of, die on the journey before they can repay their passage, he thinks nothing of separating their two youngsters -- depriving each of the only family they have left. The older child, a boy, is easy to place as an indentured servant. Lavinia - not quite seven, thin as a rail and too traumatized even to eat - is brought home and handed over to Belle to help out in the kitchen with no great care as to whether she thrives or dies. Cap'n Pyke means to do right by his family and his slaves, but he is an absentee plantation owner, an absentee husband and an absentee father. On his visits home, he sees what he wants to see - something I found very believable. It is his neglect and his decisions that set a series of horrific events in motion - but the story is told not by him, but in alternating chapters by Belle and Lavinia. In many ways, theirs are parallel stories. Both have lost their families and their place in the world at just about the same age - Lavinia through the death of her parents, and Belle when her grandmother dies without warning. And both cling to what family is left to them, even at the expense of freedom or independence. In fact, Grissom's novel is not so much a novel about history or about slavery - though the lives of the characters are defined by their times and by the slave society they live in - as about family. I found it very believable that the orphaned Lavinia, treated with concern and kindness by Belle and by Mama Mae and Papa George - the couple who are matriarch and patriarch of the house slaves -- would grow to love them as her adopted family. And I found it likewise believable that Belle, too, would cling to her family of fellow slaves and the only home she has known rather than accept the "freedom papers" her white father halfheartedly offers. (Belle tells us her story as it is happening -- unlike Lavinia, who narrates as an adult looking back on her childhood and coming-of-age years - but her childhood is already over when the book begins. She describes it in the second chapter, so this is not a spoiler.) The setting and history of The Kitchen House are impeccably researched and beautifully woven into the story. The descriptions are evocative of time and place, and Grissom is an extremely able story-teller. Nor does she sugarcoat the institution of slavery, though her story is narrated by a white indentured servant and a relatively privileged house slave. (The absentee, Cap'n Pyke, for instance puts a harsh overseer in charge of the field slaves, whose children are fed from a trough like pigs.) The events of The Kitchen House are also great soap opera - and I mean this as praise, not putdown - and are set into motion largely by Cap'n Pyke's decision to keep Belle's parentage secret. This is the root of dramatic misunderstandings and events. When the book begins -- after a terrifying prologue set 20 years in the future -- Belle is a beautiful young woman of eighteen, to whom the captain pays private visits and gives small gifts. Not knowing the real reasons for her husband's favorable treatment of Belle, Miss Martha, the captain's wife, is free to draw her own conclusions. Although this makes for a gripping plot, that this would remain a secret from Cap'n Pyke's wife and family was the one sticking-point for me. Belle has told us that she was moved from the big house when the captain married Miss Martha "because the cap'n don't want Miss Martha to know about me." Still, there is not a slave on the plantation who does not know or guess that he has fathered her. In the nonfiction book The Plantation Mistress: Woman's World in the Old South, the plantation-raised author Mary Boykin Chesnut is quoted as writing, "Any lady is ready to tell you who is the father of all the mulatto children in everybody's household but her own. Those, she seems to think, drop from the clouds...." The implication of course, is that the mistress is willfully not seeing, but Miss Martha is portrayed as genuinely not seeing. The implication too is that these "mulatto" children are the subject of much gossip among the ladies of the various plantations. Kathleen Grissom has taken care to make Tall Oaks unusually isolated, and during the months of the captain's sea voyages, his wife could not travel on her own, nor did she entertain visitors. Still, I found it hard to swallow that no one, whether white neighbor or trusted house slave, would set her straight even as disaster piled upon disaster. If not for this, I would give the book an unqualified Five. However, despite my difficulty with "the willing suspension of disbelief" on this point, I found The Kitchen House one of the most compelling and thought-provoking novels I've read in some time. And I'm hoping the author's characters will continue unfolding their stories to her; I know I'm not the only reader hoping for a sequel!
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Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2010 by Rochelle Hollander Schwab
Format: Kindle
The Kitchen House follows the lives of Lavinia, an indentured Irish girl from about the age of six, and Belle, the secret daughter of the master of Tall Oakes Plantation and her much-extended family. As Lavinia grows, so do her bonds with her new family, the other slaves on the land. The story shows both sides of slavery, from the black perspective as well as the indentured white perspective. Things are always easier for the whites; including in slavery, so it seems. When Lavinia grows into a woman, she marries Marshall, the son of the Tall Oakes owner and that is when she learns what real slavery is all about. Both Lavinia and Belle are forced to fight for their lives and those of their family in The Kitchen House. Beautifully penned, Kathleen Grissom takes the reader on a journey with both Lavinia and Belle from digestible viewpoints. While there is some difficult subject matter, nothing is over-the-top triggering. The Kitchen House is a good toe-in entry into the harsh life of slavery.
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Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2024 by Lynda Riggers
Format: Paperback
Before reading this novel, I had the expectation that it was going to be gripping and unforgettable, but it definitely fell short of it. The plot was not engrossing; it had a typical story line where the young white innocent girl grows up with an African American family in the late 1700s in America, not noticing the physical difference between her African American family and herself. It was a decent attempt at character development, portraying Lavinia (the young white indentured servant girl from Ireland) as selfless and consistently proving her unconditional love for her African American family, and Belle (the young mulatto slave girl, fathered by her master) as a headstrong young woman, but only a helpless bystander in the white man's world. The characters had potential, but their personalities were way too extreme. It was not relatable, which is one of the most important traits a good historical fiction novel should have. The audience wants to be taken back to that time and feel what the people of that time had felt, and this just did not do it. Lavinia was too pure, even at the age of 17, she only partly understood that her skin color was different from that of her adopted family. After the turmoil she had been through, there should have been more internal conflict within her to love her adopted family the same or to have that love falter. Even though her love for her family was unconditional, it just was not portrayed very intensely, which would have made the novel much more enticing. It was not touching; the audience understands the lowly status of African Americans during this time, and the way in which the white male dominated society, and this understanding should have made me cried when I realized how unconditional and ahead of her time Lavinia's love for her family was. Grissom just did not touch on that aspect enough. She made Lavinia's love natural and modern, which was disappointing. I wanted to see Lavinia struggle and finally realize that skin color and social norms did not determine love. As for Belle, she talked headstrong, but never really acted on any of her actions until the end of the novel. She just seemed helpless, always a damsel in distress. Her heroic moments were definitely overshadowed by her helplessness. Overall, this novel was just simply alright. It was nothing too exciting, but I did want to know the ending, and it was sweet.
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Reviewed in the United States on June 27, 2013 by stefferino