The Kitchen House: A Novel
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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.
Publisher : Atria Books
Publication date : February 2, 2010
Edition : First Edition
Language : English
Print length : 368 pages
ISBN-10 : 1439153663
ISBN-13 : 978-1439153666
Item Weight : 15 ounces
Dimensions : 5.25 x 1 x 8 inches
Book 1 of 2 : Kitchen House
Best Sellers Rank: #8,079 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #71 in Family Saga Fiction #75 in Coming of Age Fiction (Books) #376 in Literary Fiction (Books)
Customer Reviews: 4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 34,224 ratings var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Customers say
Customers find this book to be a great summer read with a deeply moving story and well-developed characters. Moreover, the writing is praised as a well-written historical novel, and customers describe it as heart-wrenching, making them cry throughout. However, the pacing receives mixed reactions, with some finding it fast-moving while others describe it as very slow-paced.
Mariejws –
extremely Moving
The Kitchen House is a beautifully written and deeply moving novel that captures both the warmth of human connection and the heartbreak of injustice. Kathleen Grissom brings to life the complex relationships between enslaved families and plantation owners with sensitivity and emotional depth.What struck me most was how vividly she painted the world—each character feels real, flawed, and unforgettable. The cruelty that is created by trauma is amplified. The story pulls you in with love, loyalty, resilience, and the way people find strength even in the hardest circumstances.
MLS –
A remarkable story and achievement
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 ofher 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 writersis to bridge the great divide between those who differ from one another, then Kathleen Grissom has done her job.
pothostea –
Murder, rape, incest, and more! New chick lit historical fiction rocked my world
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.
patricia miller –
Absolutely couldn’t put in down , it’s happy , sad , tear jerking , best book I read in ages I loved it x
Elizabeth –
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It took you through a journey of a negro family and a young Irish girl that they took in and made her feel she belonged somewhere. I did like the fact it was not too graphical in description of any violence but did show the true and real facts of the violence and torture that was there for the negro slaves. Thank you to the author, I really enjoyed reading this book
Debarati Choudhury –
The Kitchen House, set in the late 1700s and early 1800s, in Virginia, is a gripping novel about a white (Lavinia) and a black woman (Belle), traversing through love, betrayal, tragedies and myriad circumstances of life, whilst shackled in the reins of slavery.Based on Black History and Black Slavery in America, the finesse with which the author doles out the different characters, their feelings and their countless ordeals, leaves us no room but to completely merge into the book and become a part of their family. Reading this novel based on historical fiction genre, it’s not at all easy to make out that this is the author’s debut novel! It makes one introspect into one’s own life and the blessings of time to truly know and revere the meaning of ‘living freely’ and makes it almost impossible for the reader to put the book down until the very end. Be ready for goosebumps all the way.A New York Times Bestseller, The Kitchen House totally changed my perspective towards life, to not take things for granted and to be grateful for all things bestowed on me. It taught me: in this world, being constant subject to baseless discrimination of sorts, highlighting that of race and color, if there is one string that binds the whole universe, it’s one and only~Love. I am indebted to this book and it will always be one of my most favorite English novels of all times.
E –
何とまぁ悲しい物語である。アメリカ南部を舞台に、プランテーション富豪のお屋敷で、その家族と奴隷達に次々と事件が起こる。主人公はLaviniaという女の子で、７歳にしてアメリカに移住する家族と共に船でアイルランドから旅立つ。長い船旅中、両親は病死。唯一の兄とも引き離され、タバコ栽培のプランテーションで財を成したアメリカ人男性のMasterにindentured servantとして売られてしまう。白人であるにも関わらずお屋敷では黒人奴隷達と住まいを同じにし、MamaやMasterと黒人女性との間に生まれた実の娘Bellに本当の娘や家族のように育てられる。時がたち、自分の肌の色が違う事に気づくLavinia。彼女が成長しお屋敷にmistress(若女将）として戻り、かつては家族同様であったKitchen Houseの人々のよそよそしさや歴然たる身分差を理解し、思い悩む様子が書かれている。当時の黒人奴隷達の扱いは目を覆うばかりの扱いであり、集落に集められ住まわされ、夜明けから日暮れまでプランテーションで働かされ、食うものもろくに与えられないような状況であった。行動はoverseerに事細かに監視されており、少しでもoverseer（この本ではRankinというアル中男）の気に入らないことがあれば折檻されたり食糧の給付が減らされる。そんな中でも、奴隷達は家族の絆を深め互いに慰め合い励まし合い日々を過ごしている。作品の中で異様に感じたのは、当時は日常茶飯事的に行われていた白人男性の黒人奴隷女性への性的暴行のくだりである。当時は堕胎も不可能であり、その結果生まれてきた混血児達は決して白人としては扱われなかった。作中、RankinやMasterの息子も同じ過ちを犯す。作品の時代設定である１８世紀後半当時の歴史的描写には欠けているが、BellとLaviniaが交互にナレーションする形式で書かれているため、非常に読みやすく、時には物足りなくも、二人それぞれの心情が細やかに描かれている。これがこの著者の処女作であるとのことだが、重苦しいテーマで悲哀溢れるストーリーにもかかわらず、読み物としてはすっかり引込まれた。ただ黒人英語が発音のまま書かれているため、意味を推測しながら読み進むのに慣れるまでには少々時間を要した。タイトルのKitchen Houseとは、当時はお屋敷とは別棟で台所が建てられていたことに起因する。
Rosario –
Refleja ese sur de EEUU con enorme cariño y conocimiento.Los personajes están VIVOS y llegan a emocionar.Todo un hallazgo