“The Kitchen House” by Kathleen Grissom – Torn Between Worlds

Lavinia is a seven year-old girl who has recently been orphaned and arrived to the United States on-board a ship. Unfortunately, her already-cruel destiny didn't stop there, as she arrived at a tobacco plantation, famous today for their propensity to enslave people, particularly Africans. 

However, it seems the white family living on the plantation cannot see past her skin, making her spend her days working in the kitchen with the other slaves. However, that is where she finds hope: a second family who don’t care what she looks like and take of her as if she was one of her own.

One day, however, Lavinia is accepted into the white family, leaving her stranded between two worlds, one which made her what she is, and the other promising her the future. Because of today’s “political correctness” climate, many writers are turned off from exploring some of the less-honorable historic events which have occurred in the United States, namely the widespread and remorseless use of slaves. 

However, there remain a few artists who don’t care who they are going to offend (some even count on it) or what subjects they are going to explore, as is evidenced by The Kitchen House, written by the hand of Kathleen Grissom.

Now, it obviously isn't the “N-word” (writing this actually made me cringe a bit) fest that Django Unchained (2012) was, but it does have certain depictions which could offend some people. Nevertheless, her approach to the subject works well to make the story believable.

From a technical perspective the novel has a good pace, albeit a bit slow at certain points. Fortunately, this is a book, and it is possible to skip parts of it should you choose to. Thankfully, the writing isn't bogged down by countless descriptions and whatnot and in most cases, the events happening are important enough to keep your eyes glued, whether you are simply going through a description of regular everyday life occurrences or a big moral dilemma Lavinia has to face.

One the subject of moral dilemmas, that’s what the book is all about: what a family truly is, what it is to love one another, and what place does loyalty hold when offered the chance of a carefree life at the cost of abandoning your brothers and sisters? 

These are the questions Lavinia has to wrestle with in The Kitchen House, and even though it may sound clichéd with cookie-cutter ending, rest assured that a realistic and down-to-Earth approach is maintained through the entire novel.

The only downside to this novel I could think of is the quality of the writing itself, that is, the choice of words and sentence structure. In some parts of it I felt as if the work was a bit sloppy, but in the grand scheme of things, especially when taking into account the touching story, it really isn’t much of a flaw to worry about. If you like dramatic historical stories based around the topic of slavery, I believe this will be right up your alley. 

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Kathleen Grissom Personal site Kathleen Grissom was born and raised in Saskatchewan, Canada, though at the moment she is residing in the southern parts of Virginia. She lives a quaint life with her husband in her renovated plantation tavern. At the moment, though she only wrote one book, The Kitchen House, it has experienced a tremendous surge in popularity, and fans are anxiously awaiting further efforts from her.