Vinegar Hill

Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
(from back of book)
In a stark, troubling, yet ultimately triumphant celebration of self-determination, award-winning author A. Manette Ansay re-creates a stifling world of guilt and pain, and 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 and routine - where calculated cruelty is a way of life preserved and perpetuated in the service of a rigid, exacting and angry God. Behind a facad of false piety, there are sins and secrets in this place that could crush a vibrant young women'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.

I always continue reading books like this hoping for a happy ending. My ideal ending for this book would have been that Ellen realized that her husband does actually care and love her and the healing would begin. It wouldn't have to have a big red bow on it, but really - the husband, Jimmie, seemed completely misunderstood. This book was filled with lack of communication between the individuals, misunderstanding and seriously disturbed people. Not my favorite read by far. It doesn't rate as low as Fall on your Knees did on my list, but it's down near the bottom for sure.


Next from the bookcase: Pride and Prejudice

STILL looking forward to these recommendations (when funds allow, or library carries):
The Jane Austen Book Club - recommended by a friend, Tina
The Hunger Games - recommended by Stephenie Meyer on her website