Rating: 
Summary: Not impressed
Review: The book did not interest me from the beginning. The characters seemed so boring.
Rating: 
Summary: worth your time
Review: I just finished "Vinegar Hill." Although some have thought the book was a waste of time, I thought it was a worthwhile read. Her words flow smoothly, and I had no problem staying with the story. This story may not be light-hearted, but if you have ever been in a bad relationship that you've had trouble leaving for one reason or another, you will be able to relate to Ellen.
Rating: 
Summary: OPRAH WHAT WERE YOU THINKING???!!!
Review: I will never read another Oprah-recommended book. After barely making it through "The Pilot's Wife" (another piece of garbage recommended by Oprah) I decided to give this book a chance. I didn't think it possible, but this was even worse than TPW. Possibly the most boring book ever written. I think I got to page 45 and then I threw it away. Do not waste your time. I don't know what else to say.....
Rating: 
Summary: Vinegar Hill
Review: A brilliant but gloomy story about Ellen who married her high school sweet heart after they became involved after one date. Several years into their marriage, James lost his job and when they began to run out of money, they had to move into his parent's house. Ellen was forced to cook and keep house in a dreary cluttered home with little love and affection. In addition to the terrible surroundings, she lived in a love-less marriage with "Jimmy", an insecure man who was afraid of his parents.Ellen's mother-in-law was a pathetic figure who accepted a life of abuse and despair with her domineering and miserable husband. Together they lived a status-quo existence where they rarely communicated. Each one lived in his/her own world. They did not decorate for Christmas and Ellen's children were not allowed to play and interact as normal children. Finally, Ellen sees the light with the help of her friend; she decides to leave her husband and his parent's home. She takes the kids and moves out to make it on her own... a victorious ending!
Rating:
Summary: Dutiful Drudgery
Review: What is it that holds one within a family, a marriage, outside of love and duty? Lack of courage perhaps, or misguided religious inclinations. The protagonist puts up with more than many might because of her strong religious beliefs, dogged beliefs which leaves her a husk of a woman. I cannot emote an empathy for this, but I can empathise with sticking it at all costs even when all is bleak and hopeless and hard by. Ellen's inlaws are mean and spiteful, harsh and narrow minded, and set off Ellen's insecurities to best (worst?) advantage. Her husband is henpecked, not by Ellen who does not know how to and is too spineless to do so, but by his embittered, cruel, old world parents. Everything falls most burdensomely on the children of the marriage, who feel the misery around them, but cannot understand why there is such, save for the fact that it must be all of their fault. Ansay's prose is relentlessly descriptive, the details she pays mind to myriad and minute. Not a good read, not a good ending, but rather a painstaking portrait of a time, a culture, and a mindset.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark, dark, dark
Review: We all know people who struggle to stand up for themselves, who get caught in lifestyles we think we'd never tolerate. We also know their thinking is different from ours and that we cannot judge them for different thinking. Unfortunately, this makes this book no less frustrating. The reader surely wants Ellen to stand up for herself and leave her loser husband, if not for herself then for her children. A casserole over the head of the hateful in-laws might have also been in order. She leaves at last, but it almost seems too little too late.
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