Book Report #173 The Kitchen House

The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom

Set in southern Virginia in the late 1700s and early 1800s, this is the story of a tobacco plantation largely from the point of view of the servants in the kitchen house.

The Captain and Miss Martha own the plantation. In 1793, the Captain brings little Lavinia from his ship and gives her to the kitchen house. She's Irish and can't remember anything, not what happened on the boat or even her name. She's clearly traumatized, and can't stop throwing up and crying. Slowly it comes out that her parents died on the ship and she had a brother who she was separated from. The slaves in the kitchen house take her on as part of their family, and there is deep love between them, which made me cry more than once.

There is so much to this amazing story, and it's absolutely riveting. Drama around every corner and so many characters to care about. A few things will stick with me for a long time: how deeply people can love each other, how much suffering people can endure while staying strong and not compromising their principles, and how little power anyone who was not a white man had at that time. Even white women were under the control of their husbands.

General consensus: Mind blowing historical fiction. I wouldn't be surprised if it became required reading in schools and/or a successful film.