Gina’s Review: The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

The Invention of Wings 
written by Sue Monk Kidd
published by Viking, 2014

find it here: (affiliate links) Barnes & Noble, Amazon, iBooks, Book Depository, Goodreads

Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Did I enjoy this book: I didn’t know if I was going to like this book. I love historical fiction, but this time period is not one I usually dive into. I think that’s one of the best things about reading something that you wouldn’t normally pick out for yourself: you go into it thinking there’s a chance you won’t like it, but then the characters and the story take you on a journey. It’s a journey you fall in love with and want to travel to the end. That’s what this book was for me. It was a journey into a time period I wasn’t completely familiar with, and when I was finished, I liked it a lot. The characters felt real, and what’s great is that these are people in history. They did exist and though there were a lot of liberties taken I believe now I want to do a little more research.

 

GOLDEN LINE(S)

“My body might be a slave, but not my mind. For you, it’s the other way round.”

 

Would I recommend it: Totally! I think this would be a great book for someone who enjoys historical fiction.

About the book – from Goodreads: Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world—and it is now the newest Oprah’s Book Club 2.0 selection.

Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.

This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.