The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd
This is an astoundingly beautiful, heart-rending, captivating story of slavery and empowerment. As soon as I finished it I wanted to start it all over again. I also wanted to know more about the Grimké sisters, their lives, their courage and their persistence, as this is based on a true story.
The book is set in Charleston, South Carolina, in the early 1800s. The Grimkés are an affluent white family, and so they have slaves as servants. Their low opinion of and often brutal treatment of their slaves is shocking, but not unexpected in a book of this type. The story opens from the perspective of Hetty ‘Handful’, a young slave girl, daughter of another Grimké slave, Charlotte ‘Summer’. Her and her mother dream of freedom, but in the Deep South this seems unlikely.
The Grimkés have three daughters, who are expected to marry well, run their own household and own their own slaves. But middle child Sarah has other ideas. On Sarah’s 11th birthday she receives 10 year old Hetty as a present – a slave of her very own. This adds fuel to the sparks of Sarah’s already fierce distaste for the expectations placed upon her and the assumptions made about her future. Whilst Sarah rails against the pressures and restrictions of being a privileged white woman, Hetty feels similarly about being born the ‘wrong’ colour. Thus begins an unusual friendship between slave-owner and slave.
In an artful mirroring, albeit with very different circumstances, Sue Monk Kidd highlights the lack of choice and freedom experienced by both the daughters and their slaves. The novel charts 35 years of their lives, years filled with expectations and disappointments, fear and danger, kindness and loyalty and overwhelming sadness. It is a book of contrasts and comparisons with an ache for freedom at its core.
This novel is full of strong female characters, and is told from their point of view. It alternates between Hetty’s and Sarah’s voices, providing a deep understanding of their perspectives and insight into their characters. Hetty’s Mauma and Sarah’s younger sister also feature prominently. I loved each of these four main characters, but especially Hetty, whose voice is so authentic, naïve and honest.
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