The Kitchen Houseby Kathleen Grissom
ISBN# 978-1-4391-5366-6
This is the story of the life of a six year old indentured servant from Ireland who is orphaned and comes to live in tobacco plantation set in the late 1700's and early 1800's. She is put into the "kitchen house" which is the out parcel kitchen of the "big house". The story is told in her voice as well as the other kitchen house occupant, Belle, a slave who is also the big house's master's illegitimate daughter.
This story was amazing, even as I am thinking through what to write by way of review I see so many layers of this story and don't exactly know where to slice into. It was very complex yet in many ways simple. I love all the characters and was endeared to mostly all of them at different points in the story. Thought it was told through two character's voices I still wish others had told their stories as well because I was truly intrigued with the character development.
I read this story in record time, thinking with just about every page turn that "I just had to see what happened". I was amazed at some of the twist and turns, some with crept up on me with suprise and others which I dreaded once in the midst of it. I have to admit at some points I was disgusted not so much with the author but with the way things were and her accurate portrayal of them. I was also disappointed with naivety of one of the two main characters, yet at the same time I saw in her what I see in myself so many times, the ability to wishful think to get you where you think you'd like to be...only to be devastated.
I almost wish there were a sequel to this book. I was a bit disappointed at the frenzied and frantic end. And I would love to know how some of the beloved other characters fared.
"Albina," she said, "this I know. What the color is, who the daddy be, who the mamma is don't mean nothin'. We a family, carin' for each other. Family make us strong in times of trouble. We all stick together, help each other out. That the real meanin' of family. When you grow up, you take that family feelin' with you." Pg. 160
With that quote which encapsulates the jist of the story, I feel like "Albina" betrayed her "family". I was disappointed and disgusted with some of the choices she made. Yet the author had so endeared her to me, I also felt her pain and understood why she did some of the things she did. On pg. 300 she said "I was as enslaved as all the others." For some reason this was like a mental trick. You knew this white endentured servant was treated far differently than the others but yet again, she was enslaved to the old ways which kept her in her place. This led to one of the other major themes in the story of loneliness and loss. If you look at so many of the characters in this story you see their deep sense of loneliness. The master's wife who was so alone after loosing her children she became addicted to opium. The other main character's loss of her father and womanhood which led her to a married man whom she loved and loved her through out the story. Even his wife who in her loneliness turned to the mistress for a sense of sisterhood and common love. Layers upon layers.
I did love this story. I wish things had turned out differently. I can think of several places the author could have turned the story and made it more endearing to me, but alas....I only write a review.......
This story was amazing, even as I am thinking through what to write by way of review I see so many layers of this story and don't exactly know where to slice into. It was very complex yet in many ways simple. I love all the characters and was endeared to mostly all of them at different points in the story. Thought it was told through two character's voices I still wish others had told their stories as well because I was truly intrigued with the character development.
I read this story in record time, thinking with just about every page turn that "I just had to see what happened". I was amazed at some of the twist and turns, some with crept up on me with suprise and others which I dreaded once in the midst of it. I have to admit at some points I was disgusted not so much with the author but with the way things were and her accurate portrayal of them. I was also disappointed with naivety of one of the two main characters, yet at the same time I saw in her what I see in myself so many times, the ability to wishful think to get you where you think you'd like to be...only to be devastated.
I almost wish there were a sequel to this book. I was a bit disappointed at the frenzied and frantic end. And I would love to know how some of the beloved other characters fared.
"Albina," she said, "this I know. What the color is, who the daddy be, who the mamma is don't mean nothin'. We a family, carin' for each other. Family make us strong in times of trouble. We all stick together, help each other out. That the real meanin' of family. When you grow up, you take that family feelin' with you." Pg. 160
With that quote which encapsulates the jist of the story, I feel like "Albina" betrayed her "family". I was disappointed and disgusted with some of the choices she made. Yet the author had so endeared her to me, I also felt her pain and understood why she did some of the things she did. On pg. 300 she said "I was as enslaved as all the others." For some reason this was like a mental trick. You knew this white endentured servant was treated far differently than the others but yet again, she was enslaved to the old ways which kept her in her place. This led to one of the other major themes in the story of loneliness and loss. If you look at so many of the characters in this story you see their deep sense of loneliness. The master's wife who was so alone after loosing her children she became addicted to opium. The other main character's loss of her father and womanhood which led her to a married man whom she loved and loved her through out the story. Even his wife who in her loneliness turned to the mistress for a sense of sisterhood and common love. Layers upon layers.
I did love this story. I wish things had turned out differently. I can think of several places the author could have turned the story and made it more endearing to me, but alas....I only write a review.......
