The Kitchen House

I really enjoyed this novel by Kathleen Grissom, about a young Irish girl brought as an indentured servant to a Virginia plantation in the late 1700's, who is sent to work in the kitchen house with the plantation's slaves. It's a thoughtful, beautifully written, and at times disturbing story of an all-too-real era of our country's history.

Lavinia is only 7-years-old when she arrives at Tall Oaks plantation in southern Virginia, an orphan after both her parents die on the crossing from Ireland. Because her parents were to be indentured to Captain Pyke, he takes her home and sends her to work in the kitchen house with his illegitimate half-white daughter Belle. There, over time, Lavinia comes to view Belle, Mama Mae, Beattie, and Fanny as her family. Soon, however, Lavinia develops a relationship with Ms. Martha, the Captain's wife, and her life is altered dramatically.

By telling the story from both Lavinia's and Belle's perspectives, Grissom deftly shows us how two people can see the same events in different ways. I did find some of the events and action trite - several times I knew what was going to happen before it did. But this novel is really about the characters, and they really do drive the story forward. I wanted to know what was going to happen to them, and I couldn't put the book down until I found out.

The Kitchen House