BOOK - "THE KITCHEN HOUSE" by KATHLEEN GRISSOM

In 2014 I read "THE KITCHEN HOUSE" by Kathleen Grissom, 368 pages, published in 2010. Chosen by someone else for our Book Club, I was skeptical at first for some reason, but I am glad I read it and I do consider it a very good book.  It's artfully written and thankfully the dialect wasn't distracting.  

SHORT SUMMARY -

A young, white, Irish girl ends up in VA, living with black slaves and develops a very strong bond with them - a family bond.  Her name is "Lavinia" but they call her "Abinia".  The story is told from her perspective and in alternating chapters, from the perspective of another character, Belle.  Belle's mom had a love affair with her boss (Captain), a white man, but Belle looks black like her mom.  The Captain's family had no idea he had fathered Belle.  "The Big House" is where the white folk lived and "The Kitchen House" is a separate dwelling where the slaves lived.  Lavinia ends up married to........ Ok, I won't spoil it, but sadly, he is abusive to her.  The slaves had an unspeakably hard life and were treated mercilessly, but the bond between them was tight.  The ending scene is how the book begins. 

The following are a couple of passages that moved me and inspired......

Page 124

     I went to her, hiccuping between sobs.  She sat on a bench, took her pipe from her mouth, and lightly tapped my chest with it.  "So you think that you wanna be cullad?"

     I nodded.

     "Why that be?"

     "I don't want to live in the big house.  I want to stay here with you and Belle and Papa."

     Mamma's voice was tender.  "Chil', there things in this world you don't know about yet.  We your family, that never change.  Even when you find a white boy and gets married, we still your family. Mama always your mama, Belle always your Belle."

     I stopped crying.  "What about Papa and Ben?" I asked hopefully.

     "They watch out for you just like now.  Abinia" - Mamma looked into my eyes - "you on the winnin' side.  One day might be you lookin' out for us."

     Her words calmed me, but that day I was awakened to a new realization that made me aware of a line drawn in black and white, though the depth of it still had little meaning to me.

Page 188

     "Once I had learned of Miss Martha's sorry circumstances, after I knew that she had asked for me, for Isabelle, I felt compelled to see her and to have her see me.  I grew convinced that if she saw me, she would become well again.  

Page 259

     Mama dropped her head, but not before I saw her fear.  "Masta Marshall," she said, "I don't know nothing' 'bout foolish talk."

     Marshall twisted my arm painfully as he drew me from the kitchen.  He turned back to Mama.  "I'll sell anybody who brings talk like that up to the big house."

     My arm burned.  "Marshall!  You're hurting me," I said, trying to pull free.  I looked to Mama for help, but her eyes were down, and I saw for the first time the true extent of her helplessness.

Page 276     

"Mama says in some ways, Lavinia thinkgs like a child.  She don't always get what's going on.  She comes back here, wanting everything to be the same.  It's like she don't know that when she nmarries Marshall, she's gonna tak on his world.  Mama's trying to help her see it right, but like Mama say, sometimes we got to live it out before we learn."

Isn't THAT the truth?!

Joan