This was the July selection for The Contemporary Book Club- We 7/22/15
It's the story of an Irish indentured slave who lives with a long extended Black family on a plantation in early 19th century Virginia. Lavinia lost her parents in the voyage from Ireland to America and The Captain placed her in the kitchen house when she arrives. She had a brother, Cardigan, who she hopes to find once she acclimates herself to life in her new setting. She can't seem to realize that her skin color is the major factor that separates her from her new Black family.
Belle runs the kitchen and although only ten years older than Lavinia, she becomes like Lavinia's mother. There are many other characters in this family, and Lavinia becomes 'kin' to all of them. Belle's mother, Mae, becomes like her grandmother.
Virginia is the lady of the house, Captain's wife. And she is a reclusive figure who is addicted to opium. Belle is the Captain's daughter out of wedlock and although Virginia realizes this fact, she uses the laudanum to ease the pain.
The prologue is actually the final section of the book, and it is recorded verbatim twice. Kind of strange.
I enjoyed the novel and the premise of a white girl growing up in a Black slave family was something that I have never encountered. I thought that the writer's approach was a little too 'Young Adult' and the good characters were 'really really good' and the bad characters were 'really really bad'. Most of the members fully enjoyed the novel and I would rate it a 'B minus'.
I read this just after I closed on the house on Westview Drive in early July, 2015.
Link from Amazon-
http://www.amazon.com/The-Kitchen-House-A-Novel/dp/1439153663
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