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Book Reviews Title Vinegar
Hill Fiction-Net
Rating Buy It
From Amazon.co.uk - BUY
NOW! Cover
Story In a stark,
troubling, yet ultimately triumphant celebration of
self-determination, award-winning author A. Manette
Ansay re-creates a stifling world of guilt an pain,
an the tormented souls who inhabit it. It is 1972
when circumstance carries Ellen Grier and her
family back to Holly's Field, Wisconsin. Dutifully
accompanying her newly unemployed husband, Ellen
has brought her two children into the home of her
in-laws on Vinegar Hill - a loveless house suffused
with the settling dust of bitterness an routine -
where calculated cruelty is a way of life preserved
and perpetuate in the service of a rigid, exacting
and angry God. Behind a facade of false piety,
there are sins and secrets in this place that could
crush a vibrant young woman's passionate spirit.
And here Ellen must find the strength to endure,
change, and grow in the all-pervading darkness that
threatens to destroy everything she is and everyone
she loves. We
Say Sometimes it is
the ordinary events in life that capture our
attention. In A. Manette Ansay's novel, Vinegar
Hill, Ellen Grier is the neighbor's daughter down
the street. Gossip in small towns has a way of
traveling faster than the speed of sound and
Ellen's life would be fodder for the many gossip
hungry residents of Holly's Field, Wisconsin.
Vinegar Hill is about the ties that bind families
together, and how those very ties can also destroy.
Ansay effectively draws the reader into the Grier
family's whirlpool of regret and sorrow. As each
event unfolds, the reader is drawn deeper into the
despair and heartbreak that is Ellen Grier's life.
As an outside
observer, it is easy to see what is wrong with
Ellen's family. Ellen's husband is a man who is
blind to the emotional needs of his family because
his own were not met when he was a child. In many
ways, James Grier seems intent on recapturing his
childhood when he makes the decision that his wife
and children will go to live with his parents until
he can find work again. What is so tragic about
this decision is that while he is welcome by his
mother, his family is not. All of the positive
changes that Ellen has brought into James' life
after they have married and moved away, are
effectively destroyed by a controlling,
self-centered mother-in-law. Gradually, James and
Ellen's children, Amy and Herbert become more and
more withdrawn and unhappy. Although the move is
supposed to save the Grier family, it instead
undermines James' role as the head of the household
due to his inability to stand up for his wife and
children. While Ellen grew
up in a family that was nurturing and
compassionate, her husband lived with physical and
emotional abuse. The battle that is waged between
the bitter Grier in-laws, and Ellen is a subtle one
that erodes the warmth and love that Ellen and her
children have enjoyed. As the story unfolds, it is
easy to see how and why certain events have caused
the bitterness in the Grier household.
Mary-Margaret Grier, James' mother was forced to
marry a mean, cold-hearted man even though she had
been raised to believe that she was exceptional and
deserved special treatment. Her own hatred of her
husband causes her to strike out against everyone
around her leaving a bitter woman with little to
share. As I read this
novel, I felt myself wanting to shake the various
characters. Every one of them has allowed certain
things to happen in their lives which have
ultimately resulted in tragedy and bitterness. They
seemed incapable of protesting or standing up for
themselves. While I found this to be infuriating,
it is an honest and accurate portrayal of how
people were expected to act during this time
period. Although 1972 was not that long ago, a
woman's right to stand up to her husband when he
wasn't visibly abusing her was frowned upon. People
were discouraged from 'airing their dirty laundry
in public.' In the end, I had to admire Ellen's
courage and tenacity. Vinegar Hill is a novel that
will pull you in before you realize it. A good book
for your summer reading list. Review by: Yumi
Nagasaki-Taylor |
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