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Jan 29, 2012

Bob rated it:

I saw an article that Dolen Perkins-Valdez was speaking about her book here in Durham. I had never heard of her or her book but a book about a resort in Ohio where Southern men brought their slaves as escorts was an interesting topic so my wife and I joined 25 black people and 10 other whites in a local church to hear what she had to say.

Perkins-Valdez had been told by a writing teacher to look for materials in books in obituaries. She didn't like reading obits. She did however More...

4 comments like (4 people liked it)

May 01, 2011

NerdGirlBlogger rated it:

I adore historical fiction, and feel so lucky to have been offered the chance to review Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valez. Not only am I thrilled to have found another brilliant historical fiction novel by a first-time writer, but I haven’t read a book on slavery since high school, and I was so happy to learn so many new things while reading Wench. Did you know about Tawawa House near Xenia, Ohio? It was open from 1852 – 1855 and it was a resort for Southern gentlemen and their “slave entourages.” More...

0 comments like (6 people liked it)

Oct 04, 2011

Cina rated it:

I gave this book 2 stars because I am still waiting for a conclusion to this book. I kept reading hoping that the more I read the better it would get but that didn't happen. Some of the stories of the characters fell to the side or didn't develop fully, even with the characters to me there was very little development and it was disheartening that the main character Lizzie/Eliza never really realized her worth as a woman in the story. To the bitter end, even knowing what being a slave vs a free More...

4 comments like (2 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2011

Mari Anne rated it:

I probably shouldn't have read this so close on the heels of "The Kitchen House". While this novel explores another interesting aspect of Southern antebellum slave life, it wasn't nearly as well done as "The Kitchen House". I am waffling between 2 and 3 stars for this one.

"Wench" explores the lives of four slaves who act as mistresses to their slave owners. They meet up four summers in a row at a Northern resort and the novel explores their lives and s More...

8 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jan 19, 2011

Maegen rated it:

Wench was a book club choice and I was quite frustrated by it's selection. I hate reading about slavery or anything connected to it. It makes me uncomfortable, sad and angry. Furthermore, the idea that this story focused on the lives and relationships of four slave mistresses turned my stomach. Needless to say, I struggled with this book. It was incredibly difficult for me to get through. I read and put it down so many times that I often thought of not picking it up again, but I kept coming back More...

6 comments like (15 people liked it)

Mar 27, 2011

Brenda Ann rated it:

My pick
This is the first book I've read of the Civil War era. It tells a story about women and their relationships - primarily slave women. It all about love, family, entitlement, losing, lots of losing. It was sad, but I don't think any of those women would want our sympathy. Compassion, sure. But not sympathy.
It was a well written story that was easy to read.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 28, 2011

Robert added it

A quickly paced, absorbing piece of historical fiction which examines the lives of slave women who also serve as mistresses to their masters. Perkins-Valdez presents a glimpse into a lost piece of history, setting her story in a resort that caters to Southern white plantation owners and their slave mistresses. In the second section of the novel, the reader is introduced to Lizzie, one of the four mistresses who meet one summer at the resort. Lizzie's story is told with great empathy as she is sl More...

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Jul 28, 2011

Donna rated it:

I really enjoyed the audio Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez from Audible.com. Quincy Tyler Bernstine did such an amazing job narrating this and capturing and expressing the varying emotions of the characters. Quincy was really able to effectively present each character in a way that was relatable and gave me, as a reader, a real feel for that time period. [return][return]I thought Wench was an amazing debut novel. It tells the story of Tawana House, an American resort located in Ohio just before th More...

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Jul 25, 2011

Donna rated it:

I really enjoyed the audio Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez from Audible.com. Quincy Tyler Bernstine did such an amazing job narrating this and capturing and expressing the varying emotions of the characters. Quincy was really able to effectively present each character in a way that was relatable and gave me, as a reader, a real feel for that time period.

I thought Wench was an amazing debut novel. It tells the story of Tawana House, an American resort located in Ohio just before the Civil War. Tawa More...

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Feb 11, 2012

Nancy rated it:

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here

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Oct 27, 2011

Autumn rated it:

Please don't compare this book with 'The Help', because "Wench" is far superior to that book, both in quality of writing and historical background.

"Wench" is the story of four women, who each represent an aspect of the life of a female slave,used for sex. One imagines herself in love, one tolerates her master, one is a fighter, and one is worn out after years of abuse. Regardless of their personal experiences, all are 'wenches', women who are sexual partners (and m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Oct 22, 2011

Tonysha rated it:

I was thoroughly caught up in this story. Knowing that this surreal time/place within the experience of slavery in America is completely factual was difficult to get my head around. I shouldn't have been as scandalized as I was/am, in light of the fact that everything about this time in American history is a horror. Each of the individual stories of the four women in the novel is captivating. In the same way that a 10 car pile-up on the highway is captivating. You will be horrified by what they More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 05, 2011

Sheila rated it:

I enjoyed this book, but only up to a point. The subject matter was quite gripping, but I found it an "almost there" book rather than a completely satisfying read. I found the prose a bit "prosy"; flat and straightforward, and not always in a good way. The characters were interesting but did not quite come alive; even Lizzie, the main character, who was the most developed, somehow was not completely well-rounded. The biggest disappointment was the ending, because it made no More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Aug 31, 2011

Sherrice rated it:

Who knew that Wilberforce University used to be a hotel resort where slave owners vacationed with their mistresses. Not just any mistress, but that slave mistress that lived in the big house right up under the wifey's nose. In fact, sometimes the wifey went along for the ride, too. Can you imagine vacationing with your hubby and his mistress? No way! Dolen Perkins-Valdez did an excellent job capturing the spirits of the various women in writing. One woman represented those who thought they loved More...

1 comment like

Aug 05, 2011

Melissa rated it:

Completely aside from telling a pretty interesting story, this book does an excellent job of exploring the complexities that can result even in the most unambiguously wrong of relationships.

Lizzie and her friends Reenie, Sweet, and Mawru have been coming to the Tawawa House Resort in Ohio for years. They're not there by choice; they do nothing by their own choice, as they are simply the property of their masters. And their masters love the resort for its discreetly placed cabins, in More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jun 13, 2011

Chanda rated it:

I recently read the book and truly enjoyed it. I like reading stories with racial elements. I thought the story put slave/master relationships in a new light for me. I understand and imagined a hate relationship and a love relationship, but I found Lizzie and Drayle's to be somewhere in the middle, from Lizzie's perspective. She never seemed to come to hate him, but by the end of the book, I found that she loved him a little less. I felt this way based on how she handled her last pregnancy and h More...

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Jun 13, 2011

Jenny rated it:

This fictional novel is based on a real place in history, Tawawa House. Tawawa House was located in Ohio and was where, prior to the civil war, white men (typically Southerners) would vacation during the summer with their "favorite" slave (or "wench"). It was one of those things everyone knew but didn't talk about -- men "taking up" with their female slaves, fathering children, yet still enslaving these women. Ohio was also a free state meaning they were surrounded, More...

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May 25, 2011

Queen rated it:

I was recommended by my cousin to read this book just before she got married two weeks ago and I finally finished yesterday. I jumped right into it immediately the first few days and when I got into the middle of the book I had to stop for a week! I started to get mad as I did when I read "Uncle Tom's Cabin" by Richard Wright! I started to feel angry because I was reading history as if it was being shown right before my eyes and there was nothing that I could do about it! I'm so thankf More...

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May 16, 2011

Marmar rated it:

..... where to begin? I found this book equally disturbing as I did enthralling. It's told completely from Eliza's perspective. She is the slave/mistress of a plantation owner. She beleives herself in love with her master and father of her children.

They travel to a resort in Ohio and it's somewhat common place for the plantation owners to bring their slave mistresses there for a vacation where they can be more open as a couple without fear of censure.

Eliza meets others s More...

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May 13, 2011

Sarah rated it:

It's the 1850's, and abolition is slowly spreading through the Northern states. But white men in the South still own slaves, and aren't quite ready to release them to freedom. This story follows 4 black mistresses, who are owned by white men. These men are able to take them up to Ohio every summer for some R & R at the Tawawa House, a resort that caters especially to these types of arrangements. The main character is Lizzie, and she has been owned by her master Drayle most of her life. She More...

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Apr 30, 2011

Gina rated it:

The subject material is difficult, but it was the daily, lived reality of enslaved African women in 19th century US.

It's a story of enduring love and friendships despite distance and disadvantages. The exploration of enslavement in free spaces is especially interesting. The four women became close as they all shared the same inevitable life with their slave owners. Three of the women seemingly content to live their lives as they have, one of them ready to break free from the chains tha More...

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Mar 27, 2011

Eliza rated it:

This had been discussed and dismissed for my bookclub, but when I saw it at the used book store I picked it up. It's been compared and contrasted to "The Help" in many reviews. I think the major difference from "The Help" was in the individualization of the Black characters. The four main female characters had very similar situations but reacted each in their own way. I found it frustrating, though, how very much their situations were meant to be similar, even their very diff More...

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Mar 01, 2011

Breann rated it:

Sunday I left for another quick business trip and upon arriving at the airport discovered I forgot both of my current reads. Nothing makes me crankier than the prospect of a trip with nothing to read, so I dashed to Book People and paid full market price for this unexpected gem of a book. I had very little time to make my selection, but the review suggesting readers of "The Help" would enjoy this title made my decision easy.

With book in hand I boarded the plane I must con More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Feb 21, 2011

T rated it:

I struggled reading this. It is a selection for book club and the only reason I read it. The subject matter was the problem...I felt like I was having to read yet another book about slavery that assumes the mind-set of the slaves. I wish I could read a book that just discusses the injustice rather than to portray the inner struggles of the masters. The basis of the story is masters taking their slave mistresses on vacation -- what completely baffled me is one of the slaves actually thought her m More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 31, 2011

Denise rated it:

A slave girl finds herself in the house and her Masters 'choice' slave...bears him two children and visits a summer hotel where it's accepted that white men will have black slaves with them for thier use, physical labor and sexual use. The slave women find themselves in free territory and develop a relationship based on history, current situation and future. Each woman takes a path that leads her on a journay all her own, but in the end you find they were closer and give more for each other th More...

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Nov 15, 2010

Kimberly rated it:

I loved this book! It offered a a refreshing take on a subject that slave owners and their "mistresses", although I use this word loosely because it implies that these women freely entered these relationships. I think with all the reviews of the book, it is not neccessary for me to recap what it is about. What I would like to say is that I loved how the author showed you four women in the same situation, and how each one of them viewed their situation differently. And how knowing one a More...

0 comments like (3 people liked it)

Aug 12, 2010

Anne rated it:

"Wench" is a historical novel that takes the reader into a unique setting and a precarious point in time. The place is Tawawa House, a resort in Southern Ohio, and the time is the 1850s. The four main characters are slave women who travel to the resort every summer with their white masters. The story is told from the point of view of Lizzie, an educated slave who has a very ambivalent relationship with her master, Nathan Drayle.

The book begins one summer when the slaves at More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 06, 2010

Shauna rated it:

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Seemingly realistic portrayals of enslaved black mistresses and their white, Southern masters. Though not graphic, the book is emotionally difficult to read – these words create visual images of bondage both physically and psychologically. Though a slave herself, Lizzie falls prey to thinking like a "white man" – dehumanizing other fellow slaves. Perhaps this is, for her, self protection.

Quotes from the book:

Every slave go More...

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May 29, 2010

Tayari rated it:

Today I received my copy of Wench, the new novel by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. I really loved this book. (And what a gorgeous cover!)The novel is set at Tawawa House-- an actual Ohio resort where white plantation owners vacationed with their enslaved mistresses.

I know that there are some readers who are very tired of the American fixation with slave mistresses. I know know where you are coming from. However, this novel is different. For one thing, Wench is the story of four women who are More...

1 comment like (20 people liked it)

May 19, 2010

Will rated it:

Set in the mid 19th Century, Wench offers a fictionalized account of a very real and strange practice. Southern slaveowners would vacation in a particular Ohio resort and take slave women along as their vacation partners, leaving their wives at home. The story centers on several slave women, their different backgrounds, experiences with slavery and relationships with the masters. All are used sexually, but one, Lizzie, holds actual feelings for her owner.

This is an engaging story, o More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)