The Kitchen House
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Summary
‘You must not become too friendly with them,’ she said. ‘They are not the same as us.’
‘How?’ I asked. ‘How are they not the same?’
When seven-year-old Irish orphan Lavinia is transported to Virginia to work in the kitchen of a wealthy plantation owner, she is absorbed into the life of the kitchen house and becomes part of the family of black slaves whose fates are tied to the plantation.
But Lavinia’s skin will always set her apart, whether she wishes it or not. And as she grows older, she will be torn between the life that awaits her as a white woman and the people she knows as kin…
A compelling, powerful and poignant coming-of-age story about the fragility of family,and where love and loyalty prevail.
‘How?’ I asked. ‘How are they not the same?’
When seven-year-old Irish orphan Lavinia is transported to Virginia to work in the kitchen of a wealthy plantation owner, she is absorbed into the life of the kitchen house and becomes part of the family of black slaves whose fates are tied to the plantation.
But Lavinia’s skin will always set her apart, whether she wishes it or not. And as she grows older, she will be torn between the life that awaits her as a white woman and the people she knows as kin…
A compelling, powerful and poignant coming-of-age story about the fragility of family,and where love and loyalty prevail.
Reviews
I recommend the novel THE KITCHEN HOUSE by Kathleen Grissom. This novel, like THE HELP, does important work: it factors in the experience not only of African-Americans under enslavement, but of poor white Europeans, who, during the same period of American history, were often indentured.
Alice Walker, author of The Color Purple and Pulitzer Prize winner