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The Kitchen House: A Novel

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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

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Top Amazon Reviews

    • Murder, rape, incest, and more! New chick lit historical fiction rocked my world
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. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 13, 2010 by pothostea
    • A remarkable story and achievement
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. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2022 by MLS

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