Vinegar Hill (P.S.)
Oprah Book Club&#174; Selection, November 1999:Vinegar Hill is an appropriate address for the characters who  populate A. Manette Ansay's novel of the same name. After all, when Ellen Grier and  her family return to the rural hamlet of Holly's Field, Wisconsin, it's not exactly a happy homecoming. Her husband, James, has been laid off from  his job in Illinois. And for the moment, the family has moved in with  Ellen's in-laws, Fritz and Mary-Margaret, an unhappy pair who dislike their daughter-in-law almost as much as they despise each other:The first time Ellen sat at this table she was twenty years old, bright-cheeked after a spring afternoon spent walking along the  lakefront with James, planning their upcoming wedding. It was 1959 and she was  eager to make a good impression. She didn't know then that Mary-Margaret  disliked her, that she was consideredJimmy's mistake.Thirteen years later, in 1972, Ellen is back at the table with no  escape in sight. Both she and her husband do find work. Yet James seems to  settle a tad too easily into his old life, and shows no interest in finding a place of their own. Even worse, his job takes him away from home for  weeks at a time, leaving Ellen to cope with her abusive in-laws.InVinegar HillAnsay paints a searing portrait of the Midwest's dark side, of a rural culture infected with despair and ruled over by  an unforgiving God. Yet she does hold out a grain of hope, too. Just as  Ellen seems permanently entangled in familial desperation, she makes a  surprising discovery about James's long-dead grandmother--a woman whose rebellious spirit inspires Ellen to rescue herself and her loved ones from the impinging darkness. This late-breaking redemption doesn't cancel out  the preceding unhappiness:Vinegar Hillremains a tough,  uncompromising tale, one that requires some fortitude to read. But those with the  heart for it will be rewarded with fine, spare prose and a hopeful ending.--Alix Wilber--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.