January Book Club Meeting Notes

This month's selection, The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom, was a popular choice. All six of us who attended the meeting liked the book, which tells the stories of a planter's family, his slaves, and an Irish indentured servant girl in the late 1700s-early 1800s.

Dianne started us off with some facts about slavery: the period when America actually imported slaves was relatively short (c. 1581-1808); thereafter, all slave trade was with slaves already existing in the country. By 1860, the commercial value of the enslaved was :
--3x greater than the total amount of all capital in the north and south combined
--3x greater than the total amount generated by all manufacturing in the country
--3x greater than the amount invested in American railroads
--7x greater than the amount invested in American banks

We all enjoyed the fast pace of the book and the strongly drawn characters, but felt a little disappointed that the author didn't explore more fully some interesting issues she raised. For example, what would have been the social consequences of the Captain's liaison with Belle's mother, a slave he "married" and set up house with, had she not died? The Captain's mother seemed particularly amenable to the situation, treating the child as naturally as she would have a white grandaughter; what was the reaction of the world outside the plantation? Was it so disapproving that when the Captain married Miss Martha he hid the true nature of his relationship with Belle? We all would have liked to read more about this, and also more about the indentured servants who came to America.

We also all enjoyed the strongly drawn, distinctive characters, especially naive Lavinia and the steely Mama Mae and her family. The plot, however, seemed to take over the further one got into the book. From the beginning and the prologue, we knew something bad was going to happen, and the story seemed to progress from a march to a dead run, hastening us toward the end. While we all agreed the book was hard to put down because of this, we also agreed that it made the book a little uneven. We also all agreed that some parts of the story seemed a little contrived and convenient-- Miss Martha's sister agreeing to take on Lavinia's education, for example. There was some discussion about how likely the slaves would have been to do some of the things they did (another lost opportunity for detail on the part of the author), and also some discussion about the situation beween Belle, Ben and Lucy. Some felt this was another plot contrivance that did not ring quite true. Most everyone was disappointed with how Will and Lavinia's situation resolved itself, and we also wondered what Lavinia hoped to get out of her relationship with Martha, when she was so lovingly nurtured by Mama Mae and Belle (one idea was that she was instinctively drawn to Martha as someone who could provide her with knowledge that the slaves could not).

Some other titles were mentioned in the course of our discussion that would enhance the topic: Gone With the Wind  by Margaret Mitchell, The Help by Kathryn Stockett, and The Hemingses of Monticello by Annette Gordon-Reed. (All are available at the library.)

Next month's selection: Three Weeks in December  by Audrey Schulman.