Vinegar Hill (from Ex Libris)

7/23-7/24/05—Vinegar Hill by A. Manette Ansay
Why are so many “literary” books so damned depressing??? This one, according to one of the blubs on the back cover, was supposed to show something akin to a feminist rebirth or some such. What that basically means is that, right at the end, after all the shit that the main character, Ellen, has had to go through—she’s finally going to get her own apartment and move out. Or at least that’s what she says. The only action she’s taken thus far is to accept the job out of town. At the end of the book, everything else is just talk. The grandmother, I have conflicting feelings for. I guess that was Ansay’s purpose. I can’t stand her actions—I think she’s a vicious old bat. But then the reader’s allowed glimpses into her past—some of what made her that way—some of what made her son the way he is—and I understand a bit more. Big but coming—but, each person has his/her own responsibility for his/her own actions. Her lack of strength shows in the fact that she never left. Some might say that her staying with a husband who abused/raped her shows strength of character, but I see the opposite. She was too weak to face the world outside the relationship—instead, she stayed, making everyone else’s life miserable. I half expected the grandfather to rape the little girl, but it never came to that. It was hinted at, but the book ended before it could come to fruition. The question still remains for me—Ellen’s supposed to be the “heroine” in this story (if there is one) and yet—and yet—I can’t believe a mother of any kind of caliber would leave her twelve year old daughter alone with a man who she knows has a violent history. Very very dumb. I wouldn’t have been surprised in the least if this book had ended very differently.