From the Bookshelf of Books and Jams Readalong…

The Invention of Wings

Sue Monk Kidd

Start date: September 1, 2020

Finish date: September 30, 2020

Discussion: INVENTION OF WINGS - Sept 2020

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INVENTION OF WINGS - Sept 2020

Part 5 and 6
By Krista · 4 posts · 23 views

last updated Oct 02, 2020 08:09AM

Part 3 and 4
By Krista · 5 posts · 20 views

last updated Oct 01, 2020 06:43PM

What Members Thought

Nov 15, 2015 Arlene rated it it was ok

When I read The Secret Life of Bees, I was so impressed with it that I included it in my Very Best Reads list. After that I waited for her next book. The Mermaid's Chair was highly disappointing. A simple love story no imagination no writing skills - chick lit. I crossed Sue Monk Kidd off my authors to follow list and moved.

When The Invention of Wings was suggested for our book club I hoped it would not be chosen but it was. So once again I opened a book penned by Sue Monk Kidd. By page 32 I al When I read The Secret Life of Bees, I was so impressed with it that I included it in my Very Best Reads list. After that I waited for her next book. The Mermaid's Chair was highly disappointing. A simple love story no imagination no writing skills - chick lit. I crossed Sue Monk Kidd off my authors to follow list and moved.

When The Invention of Wings was suggested for our book club I hoped it would not be chosen but it was. So once again I opened a book penned by Sue Monk Kidd. By page 32 I already disliked the book but as it is a selection of the book club I continued on another 600 pages. I did not like it and would not recommended it to anyone I know. First there was no writing language, use of words that entranced me. The characters were flat and inconsistent especially Mrs. Grimke. Many of the characters were uninteresting or worthy of dislike. I did not care at all for any character so I was not drawn into the story.

The story itself is what turned me off from the start. After Roots by Alex Haley I read and read a plethora of old South books so when this one began a story of rich white girl grows up with black slave girl I wanted to put the book down. The topic is so overdone. To be fair I must add that depicting the beginning of the abolition movement and women's rights movement was unique but it fell flat because the book was a long tedious read and because I did not like the characters.

I would have liked to learn more about the free blacks of the time especially those who lived in Charleston. Imagine - how did a free black man survive in the south at that time. I also would have enjoyed learning more about the Quaker religion and practices.

I wonder if the author played with history a bit when she linked up the women's rights at the same time as abolition. That doesn't seem right but I would have to research more in order to challenge that. Linking it in the book diluted the storyline.

Conclusion, I wish I had been busy reading something else. The writing skill was average, the storyline was cookie cutter, the book was slow and tedious and far too long. The characters were one dimensional and many made only cameo appearances. I did not care for any of them. The scene where Sarah's family laughs at her childhood ambition to become a lawyer brings to mind an unbelievable portion in the book. Not the laughter but the concern and tenderness of the mother towards her daughter then and only then. Throughout the story the matriarch is an uncaring self centered mean woman but in that one instance we are expected to believe she changed and ran to comfort her bereft daughter.

The letters Hetty/ Handful wrote to Sarah were unbelievable. A slave girl who just scratched the surface of reading could not have composed and spelled the content especially after 20 years of being away from it. Handful was the girl's slave name but in several instances Mary and other whites referred to her as Handful and not Hetty.

NOT Kidd's best book. Not a book for recommendation. Would have given it 2.5 but I knocked off .5 because I am so angry at wasting time on such as this. So happy it was a library book. And I will not seek out writings of Sue Mon Kidd except as pointers of future books to avoid. ...more

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Mar 16, 2014 Gayle rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2014, all-time-favs

Thoughtful and well written. Loved the interweaving of the two main characters -- how their lives and points of view overlap and evolve over time. The author does and excellent job of incorporating historical events into the story. I want to learn more about the real lives and events taking place in Charleston during this time in history.

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