From the Bookshelf of Retro Chapter Chicks …

The Invention of Wings

Sue Monk Kidd

Start date: February 1, 2015

Finish date: February 28, 2015

Why we're reading this: This is our February 2015 Moderator Choice. The novel was runner-up within the historical fiction genre f…more
[close] This is our February 2015 Moderator Choice. The novel was runner-up within the historical fiction genre for the 2014 Goodreads Choice Award and received 32,095 votes.

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May 31, 2014 Book Concierge rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 19th-century, historical-fiction, literary-fiction, racism, relationships, sisters, audio, concierge, strong-women, women-writers

Book on CD performed by Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye.

From the Amazon.com description
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.

My reactions
Kidd has crafted an excellent work of historical fiction inspire Book on CD performed by Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye.

From the Amazon.com description
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.

My reactions
Kidd has crafted an excellent work of historical fiction inspired by the true story of the Grimke sisters, Sarah and Angelina, who were famous (and infamous) abolitionists and early pioneers in seeking equal rights for women. She balances Sarah’s story by imagining the life of one of her family’s slaves – a lady’s maid and seamstress named Handful. When the novel opens Sarah is turning eleven and for her birthday her parents give her a young slave girl about her same age. But Sarah is never comfortable with the thought of owning another person, and promises Handful’s mother, Charlotte, that she will find a way to free the young slave.

The book is told in alternating chapters, one narrated by Sarah, the next by Handful. This is a very effective method of telling these interwoven stories of women enslaved either figuratively by the limited expectations of society (Sarah), or literally by the laws and institutions of society (Handful). Sarah’s early promise and clear intelligence are quickly quashed by the expectations of her parents that she be a “refined lady” and make a good marriage. Having any other personal ambitions will simply not be tolerated. Handful, of course, has even fewer options, but she has a character and inner strength that will not be broken.

Slavery was an ugly institution and Kidd does little to soften the view. Yes, she is dealing with urban slaves, so they are not subject to the brutality of long hours working in the fields, but their lives are not easy. They are subject to lashings, to being “one-legged,” or even worse to a session with the treadmill in the Workhouse. All these punishments, and more, are depicted in the book, and it made me cringe, as I would hope anyone would on reading about such cruelty.

Kidd did considerable research in writing the novel, and she populates it with various real people from the time period. In addition to the Grimke sisters, she includes other famous abolitionists: Theodore Weld, John Greenleaf Whittier and Lucretia Mott, as well as free Blacks Sarah Mapps Douglas (who founded a school for African children in Philadelphia) and Denmark Vesey (who used his lottery winnings to buy his freedom and a small house in Charleston where he opened a carpentry shop).

The characters I liked most, however, were the fictitious slaves – Handful, Charlotte, Sky, Goodis, Aunt-Sister, Tomfry, etc. Kidd gave them dignity and grace, courage and faith, resourcefulness and love. These men and women cared for one another and while they were imprisoned in body, they were not imprisoned in mind.

Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye take turns performing the audio book, the former voicing Sarah’s chapters, the latter, Handful’s. They did a marvelous job bringing these characters to life and showing their individuality, strengths and weaknesses.

NOTE - I actually have a hardcover first edition MINUS the Oprah logo. But that cover isn't shown on goodreads, so I'm using this edition of the book. ...more

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Jan 16, 2014 Kris (My Novelesque Life) rated it really liked it

I love history and American history and from inception to the 1960s, is one of my passions. Along with factual reading I enjoy historical fiction as it presents a different form of storytelling. For me, it is a way to put yourself in the time through interesting characters...

THE INVENTION OF WINGS
Written by Sue Monk Kidd
(Narrated by Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye)
2014; Penguin/Viking Books (385 Pages)
(Audio length: 13 hours and 46 minutes)
Genre: historical fiction, american, southern fiction, af I love history and American history and from inception to the 1960s, is one of my passions. Along with factual reading I enjoy historical fiction as it presents a different form of storytelling. For me, it is a way to put yourself in the time through interesting characters...

THE INVENTION OF WINGS
Written by Sue Monk Kidd
(Narrated by Jenna Lamia and Adepero Oduye)
2014; Penguin/Viking Books (385 Pages)
(Audio length: 13 hours and 46 minutes)
Genre: historical fiction, american, southern fiction, african-american history, based on true events

RATING: 4 STARS

Sue Monk Kidd wrote The Invention of Wings because of her interest in the Grimke sisters and the time they lived in. In the novel we hear from Sarah Grimke and her maid, Hetty "Handful" Grimke.

Sarah is the middle child of a wealthy lawyer with a household of house and field slaves. We meet Sarah at a young age when her ideals and moral code is cemented. As a child she wanted to be a jurist like her father and brother but is told that she is a woman and therefore will be a wife. She meets a charming man with whom she thinks she can be the "wife" with. When her heart is broken she forgoes society and her reputation as she fights for the rights for women and African-Americans with her youngest sister, Angelina.

Hetty's mother is also a slave has become Mrs. Grimke's seamstress when she shows talent. Hetty sits at her mother's feet learning about sewing, her family history and wanting to be free. Sarah is uncomfortable with Hetty being a slave and tries to free her when Hetty is given to her on her birthday. When she is told no Sarah goes against the law to teach her to read and write. Hetty taking on her mother's word joins the cause to free herself.

I loved Sue Monk Kidd's The Secret Life of Bees and was pleased to see that she was writing another novel set in the South. Before I started this novel I did not know that this story was based on real historical figures. The author does tell in the Afterwards why she wrote this story and how much is historical fact and how much is historical fiction. I love that the novel alternates between Sarah and Hetty as it gives us the aspect of both "slaves" and "slaveholders" in the early nineteenth century. The writing is brilliant and the subject matter is so interesting. I found myself looking up the Grimke sisters and seeing what was written about them. This is one novel that will leave you still thinking about it months later.

***I received an eARC from NETGALLEY***

My Novelesque Life ...more

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Jan 03, 2014 Tasha rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-fiction

I love learning something new, especially when it's presented in a hist fic book. I am so glad to have been introduced to the Grimke sisters who were so instrumental in rights for both slaves and women. The story was well-done and I enjoyed the alternating POV between the slave Handful and the development of the abolitionist Sara Grimke. ...more

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Feb 10, 2014 Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Jenn Ƹ̴Ӂ̴Ʒ Schu rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, women-s-fiction, tbrhchallenge

A beautifully written story, the author weaved a true heroine to life on the pages of the book. I loved the relationship between Sarah & Handful and the wings they both created for themselves.

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Feb 27, 2014 Kelly rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

I wouldn't expect anything but great writing from Sue Monk Kidd and this book certainly didn't disappoint. I enjoyed it from beginning to end. There were some paragraphs I had to re-read once or even twice because of how thrilling or moving the prose was! Telling the story of the Grimke sisters, namely Sarah Grimke, who were pioneers in the abolition movement and women's rights movement, this story traces roughly 30 years of their history. The book has a dual narrative and the other narrator was ...more

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Jan 27, 2014 Lory Sakay rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Omg I started and finished his book in record time. I loved the way the story was told from one perspective and then the other throughout. The fact that this was all based on the story of the real Grimke sister's made this novel even more of a plus for me. ...more

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