The Invention of Wings in CMU Alumni Association Faculty Bookshelf

Jan 07, 2015 Cindy Leighton rated it really liked it

Shelves: race-and-ethnicity, social-justice, us-history, historical-fiction, feminism-ist

The first three-quarters was a five star book. . . but the last quarter collapsed into a disappointing three star -so a four star average. Still definitely worth reading. Monk Kidd is at her strongest when she is describing the lives and relationship of Sarah Grimke as the daughter of a judge and plantation owner, and Handful/Heddie, who is "given" to her as a present for her 11th birthday. The horrors of life as a plantation slave are well illustrated, as is the suffocatingly controlled life of The first three-quarters was a five star book. . . but the last quarter collapsed into a disappointing three star -so a four star average. Still definitely worth reading. Monk Kidd is at her strongest when she is describing the lives and relationship of Sarah Grimke as the daughter of a judge and plantation owner, and Handful/Heddie, who is "given" to her as a present for her 11th birthday. The horrors of life as a plantation slave are well illustrated, as is the suffocatingly controlled life of women. Of course Sarah has freedom, where Handful does not, but Monk Kidd does an excellent job of portraying the constrictions on the lives of women in the south during the early 19th century without diminishing the even harsher constrictions on the lives of slaves.

She explores the complex worlds of mother-daughter relationship- deftly comparing and contrasting the loving, desperate relationship of Handful and her mother Charlotte with the strained, formal relationship of Sarah with her mother. Never romanticizing the relationship between Sarah as unwilling slaveowner and Handful, her "maid in waiting," she nevertheless explores the also complex world of relationship between slave and owner when living together and sharing intimate parts of their lives, while still living with the very uneven power relationship.

Based on the amazing true lives of Sarah and her sister Angelina (Nena) Grimke - daughters of a wealthy plantation owner who moved North to Philadelphia and left their Presbyterian upbringing to become Quakers and abolitionists - the book sadly falters during the time Sarah is in Philadelphia. The narrative is much more forced when it focuses on Sarah and later Angelina's work in Philadelphia, fighting for the rights of women as well as the rlghts of Blacks. The lives of these real women were astonishing; and their fight to include both women and slaves in their fight for equality was truly groundbreaking and ended up in their ostrasization from both their hometown of Charlotte, NC as well as their beloved Quaker church. Monk Kidd wants to include all of her research, and the very important work the Grimke sisters did in Philadelphia, and their interactions with better known historical figures like William Lloyd Garrison and Lucretia Mott. Unfortunately the narrative reads more like a dry history book and has much less of the energy, passion and compassion as the narrative in North Carolina.

Overall, I still strongly recommend the book. As a US History teacher I often find "fiction" much more effectively and compellingly portrays the reality of life in different time periods than "historical truths" - as truth is always relative anyway; historical counts are always someone's narrative, events as seen, interpreted, lived, or researched through someone's eyes. The character of Handful particularly will live with me. The beautiful discussion of Charlotte's story quilts led me to look up the beautiful work of Harriet Powers and her narrative slave quilts with applique techniques brought from African cultures. Monk Kidd does an excellent job of portraying the many ways in which slaves fought back - from the planned but foiled rebellion of Denmark Vesey (another true character) to the much more subtle but common daily rebellions - sewing buttons on loosely so they popped off from embarrassing places; "losing" tools, "dropping" dishes, dropping dirt in food, sneaking out at night, working hard to create some aspects of life they could control for themselves.

I wish I could convince my high school students to read more historical fiction like this :-) ...more

1 like · Like · see review