their marriage was over and headed north to his family. Both William Howland and Margaret had died, but a mob gathered to vent its anger about the mixed marriage on Abigail and the Howland house. They kill the livestock and set fire to the barn, but Abigail succeeds in driving them away from the house with her grandfather's shotguns. At the end of the book, Abigail takes her revenge on the people of Madison City. Over the past generations, her family had come to own most of the county, making her one of the richest people in the state. Over the course of a single day, she takes revenge on the locals for betraying her grandfather by shutting down the hotel and bringing most of the local economy to ruin. Once she has done that, she places a call to Robert, with the intention of informing his new family that his mother was Black. Major themes Race is explored as a major theme throughout the novel. Grau illustrates what she regards as hypocrisy among Southerners, whose purported beliefs about race sometimes conflict with their actions and/or statements. This dissonance is reflected in the character, John Tolliver, who is challenged about whether he believes the racist rhetoric he spouts. Reception Grau's bitter condemnation of racist rhetoric, made at the height of campaigns of the Civil Rights Movement in Alabama, evoked a sharp public reaction against the author. When the book was first published, Grau was publicly attacked by the Ku Klux Klan, and a cross was burned on her lawn in Metairie, Louisiana, where she had long lived near New Orleans. References External links Photos of the first edition of The Keepers of the House 1964 American novels Pulitzer Prize for Fiction-winning works Alfred A. Knopf books Family saga novels Novels set in Alabama