The Rural Literature Book Club is meeting online for the sixth time on March 2nd, 6pm GMT/ 1pm EST. Join people from all over the world to discuss The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom.
About the Rural Literature Book Club
You can join the Rural Literature Book Club here, or email RyanDennis@themilkhouse.org to receive the Zoom link.
The conversation is friendly, inclusive and insightful, and generally lasts about an hour. The group meets online three to four times a year.
Previously discussed books include The Discomfort of Evening by Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, All Among the Barley by Melissa Harrison, Disgrace by J.M. Coetzee, Demon Copperhead by Barbara Kingsolver and The Bee Sting by Paul Murray.
To help facilitate discussion and to get the wheels turning, here are a few questions that we might discuss if the group is interested.
The Kitchen House by Kathleen Grissom
1. One of the first gifts that Lavinia received in the book was an empty bird’s nest. In what ways might this be symbolic?
2. Why do you think Belle was chosen to share the narration with Lavinia? In addition to skin color, in what ways are they similar or different?
3. What is the role of maternity in the book? What type of force is it shown to be?
4. Identity politics is often brought up in relation to this book. Grissom is a white Canadian writing about American slavery, using a the perspective of a black person half of the time. Is that problematic or not? Would the conversation about that been different at the book’s publication in 2010 than it is now?
5. In multiple interviews with Grissom, the interviewer points out that much of the action and events in the story are told to us directly by Lavinia or Belle, instead of getting to see it play out in scene. Grissom has defended her choices by saying that she didn’t want to interfere with Lavinia and Belle’s narration. Do you buy that? Do you agree with her? Or would you have liked to see more of the story unfold in real time?
Feel free to add your own questions in the comment section…