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The Kitchen House
by Kathleen Grissom
by Kathleen Grissom
First of all, let me just say that reading this book immediately after Juliet, Naked provides quite an interesting contrast. Each feature female characters that are trapped, in a sense, but it's funny to go from "Oh God, what am I going to do now that I've wasted my youth on a boring, empty relationship" to "Oh God, I hope my master doesn't rape me and then try to sell our half white, half black bastard slave child...again." Little bit of a difference there. Turns out, maybe now is a pretty good time in the course of human history to be alive -- for women especially.
As you might have surmised from my quasi-offensive statements above, The Kitchen House deals with a Virginia plantation around the year 1800. Some of the characters are familiar: there's the evil white male plantation owner (shocker!) along with the wise, caring female slave who goes by "Mama" and is basically a saint (I loved Mama Mae's character). Always loved those two archetypes. However, this book is certainly not formulaic and it approaches that cruel world in a way that did not lead me into a self-loathing induced bit of self-flagellation -- I am a white male, after all. If I learned one thing from most of my elementary/middle school reading, it's that I = devil.
The story is told through the eyes of two characters: Lavinia and Belle. Lavinia is an orphaned, white, Irish girl who is taken on as an indentured servant at the plantation and Belle is the half-black daughter of the elder plantation owner who is originally tasked with caring for her. Their lives are inevitably tragic (seriously, I spent most of the novel reading with one eye open -- as if I was in a car I KNEW was going to crash), but there are many moments of pure joy that punctuate this tenuous existence. Above all, their tales illustrate the power of family -- whether by blood or by bond.
My main complaint with this book was that Marshall's character (starts as a child, becomes plantation owner) was under-developed. I suppose this was intentional, but I felt there were complexities there that could have been explored. This kid had such an awful (repeat: AWFUL) childhood, then seemed to mature, then finally reverted to such an incredible bastard that it was almost unbelievable. I would have enjoyed even the slightest bit of insight into his damaged psyche.
Overall: good read, powerful story, do not read if you're looking to brighten your day.
As you might have surmised from my quasi-offensive statements above, The Kitchen House deals with a Virginia plantation around the year 1800. Some of the characters are familiar: there's the evil white male plantation owner (shocker!) along with the wise, caring female slave who goes by "Mama" and is basically a saint (I loved Mama Mae's character). Always loved those two archetypes. However, this book is certainly not formulaic and it approaches that cruel world in a way that did not lead me into a self-loathing induced bit of self-flagellation -- I am a white male, after all. If I learned one thing from most of my elementary/middle school reading, it's that I = devil.
The story is told through the eyes of two characters: Lavinia and Belle. Lavinia is an orphaned, white, Irish girl who is taken on as an indentured servant at the plantation and Belle is the half-black daughter of the elder plantation owner who is originally tasked with caring for her. Their lives are inevitably tragic (seriously, I spent most of the novel reading with one eye open -- as if I was in a car I KNEW was going to crash), but there are many moments of pure joy that punctuate this tenuous existence. Above all, their tales illustrate the power of family -- whether by blood or by bond.
My main complaint with this book was that Marshall's character (starts as a child, becomes plantation owner) was under-developed. I suppose this was intentional, but I felt there were complexities there that could have been explored. This kid had such an awful (repeat: AWFUL) childhood, then seemed to mature, then finally reverted to such an incredible bastard that it was almost unbelievable. I would have enjoyed even the slightest bit of insight into his damaged psyche.
Overall: good read, powerful story, do not read if you're looking to brighten your day.
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Mark
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Dec 08, 2010 02:48pm
I suggest checking out Half the Sky, which I just read. It may cause you to reexamine whether being a woman today in some places is much better than it was then. And it does it while not scolding you=devil.
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Isn't that book about the third world? Perhaps I should have clarified..."in America." The Kitchen House did not address the status of women in developing countries in the 18th century.That book does look interesting though. Perhaps I'll tackle it after I dive into Kavalier and Clay.
I agree with you about Marshall. There should have been more in-depth reasons on why he turned out the way he did. Some of it was obvious, but secretly, I was really hoping that he would get turned around, or at least there would be something in the book that would help people understand his anger issues better. There have been other characters (and real people) that have been molested as children, and they made it through the other side. I guess I was hoping for that with Marshall. I also wanted the other to elaborate on the ending a bit more, and I couldn't stand that Will was already married, so he couldn't be with Lavinia! I guess we can't always get what we want, can we?
