Welcome to Wordy Wednesday!

As I continue to make my way through this month’s novel, The Kitchen House by Canadian-born, Kathleen Grissom, I look forward to blogging about this book. I’m finding it to be a wonderful read, full of page-turning tension, tenderly explored characters, and tragic circumstances.

Racial injustice and cruelty abound; there’s plenty of death (by accident, yellow fever, unknown illness or murderous dealings), addiction, even deeply disturbing hints of pedophilia, but Grissom deals with the darkness of the day with a light but believable hand. Not dwelling on details but adeptly blending such events into the daily lives of both blacks and whites, right from the start it’s clear the author intends to tell her tale without feigned sympathy, but clear compassion and sincerity, fairness to all sides, and a yearning for the mending of racial divide.

Readers can’t help but cheer for kind and dignified characters like, Ma and Pa, the parental figures of the kitchen house. Despite their indenture, they work tirelessly to straddle the blurry line between loyalty to their families and the suffering blacks of the quarters, and their devotion to their jobs as servants to the honorable captain and his opium-addicted wife. Knowing their station in life is good for a coloured person, their master a decent, honest, and ultimately kind man who treats his slaves with as much decency as the day can afford, they conduct themselves with intelligence, humor, and wisdom, ever fighting to keep everyone safe and all together. They do not judge a person because of skin colour, even taking in Lavinia as a daughter.

So many characters, so many constant events, I could go on about each. The captain’s compassion arises from having  fallen in love  in love with a black woman (who dies and for whom the captain grieved as though she were white). Belle (now an employee of the kitchen house) is the beautiful and feisty daughter of that passionate union who struggles to make peace with her awkward position as the half black/half white daughter of the captain.  Of course, at the time, it was illegal for blacks and whites to marry and after his true love’s death, the captain goes on to marry Miss Martha, with whom he has two children at the beginning of the book and a third later on.

Miss Martha, raised in Philadelphia, yearns for the city and her own sister, and after suffering great tragedy, begins to confide in Lavinia, taking comfort in a fellow white person, whom she teaches to read. Not unlike her husband in terms of her innate kindness toward all people, Miss Martha suffers from depression, a respect for but mistrust of blacks, terrible grief (can’t say exactly what as it would spoil the read) and general lack of fortitude that has her turning to the black drops for comfort.

I’m anxious to see what become of the captain and Martha’s son, Master Marshall; an interesting character who deeply loves his little sister, Sally, but struggles from fits of rage due to the abuse he suffers at the hands of his horrific tutor, the despicable Mr. Waters. While not described in detail the suggestion of these scenes is gut-wrenching. At the 1/3 point, Marshall has been sent away to school and it remains to be seen if his innate desire for justice and decency will overcome his horrific experiences with and lessons taught by abusive white men–not only Waters but the equally despicable Rankin, bigoted, cheating, lying, stealing boss of the slave quarters and plantation fields.

Ultimately this book is about family–of all kinds–and the power of love and loyalty. Dedicated to her “beloved parents” and her “dear mentor”, it seems Ms. Grissom’s book itself comes from a place of powerful love.

See you on Free-For-All-Friday.

Cheers!

Shannon

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Happy Monday!

Let me say here and now, thank you to Ruth, our LOL member who chose our latest novel, The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom. I am loving it! It is so fast paced, I’m flying through it. I encourage all LOL followers to grab a copy and join us!

Wondering what it’s about? Here’s a synopsis from the author’s website, which by the way, is worth a peak.

In 1790, Lavinia, a seven-year-old Irish orphan with no memory of her past, arrives on a tobacco plantation where she is put to work as an indentured servant with the kitchen house slaves. Though she becomes deeply bonded to her new family, Lavinia is also slowly accepted into the world of the big house, where the master is absent and the mistress battles opium addiction. As time passes she finds herself perilously straddling two very different worlds and when loyalties are brought into question, dangerous truths are laid bare and lives are at risk. The Kitchen House is a tragic story of page-turning suspense, exploring the meaning of family, where love and loyalty prevail. 

Check out Ms. Grissom’s site. I loved the “About Kathleen” page. The author sounds so down to earth and I’m so intrigued by how this book just came to her, demanding to be written. http://www.kathleengrissom.com/

Like a few members, before we embarked upon this novel, I wondered if it might not be too much like our first book, the Help. Also fast-paced, loaded with engaging and colourful characters, both black and white–would the Kitchen House be a similar commentary on the racial divide between blacks and whites in the deep south? Did we need to read another book of that sort?

Of course. Sure, there are some similarities (I’m about 1/3 into it), most notably witty, bright, fiercely loyal and inspiring black characters struggling to assert themselves despite the racism and cruelty they are often subjected to. But we’re talking about books set in completely different eras. While the Help happens in the 60′s, when blacks have won their freedom but sadly struggle as under paid servants, the Kitchen House is set in the the late 18th century, when they are still enslaved.

What I’ve found fascinating so far, is the way in which the author shapes the evolving relationships between Lavinia, the white girl who ends up on the plantation because the master (the Captain) takes pity on her when her parents perish on his ship, during a voyage from Ireland to find a better life in America, and the many slaves she becomes close to. Captain James brings the girl home, where she becomes part of the family of kind and wise slaves who count themselves blessed to tend to the big house–a much higher station (not to mention better fed) than the blacks below them, the malnourished, under-clothed, often mistreated slaves of the quarters.

Of course the book quickly hints that both the black slaves of the kitchen house and the privileged whites inhabiting the big house love deeply, fight loyally, but hide their fair share of secrets. Already there has been true love, wanton lust, disturbing pedophilia, tragic death, and justifiable murder…I’d say it’s a page turner!

Join me for more on Wordy Wednesday.

Cheers!

Shannon

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