The Invention of Wings

The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd  373 pages


If I tell you this is a Oprah 2.0 book club pick, you might immediately discount it.  However it doesn't have the usually amount of misery and hopelessness you find in an Oprah pick, and Kidd has proven herself to be an able writer so give it a chance.  Set in the early 19th century, the book is nominally about the lives of two true-life sisters Sarah and Angelina Grimke who were early abolitionists with southern plantation roots.  But the true story is between Sarah and the slave Hetty (Handful) who was gifted to Sarah on her 11th birthday.

The novel deals with the choices and limitations that were placed on women in that day and age and how each character deals with those limitations.  Handful sums it up best when she tells Sarah that Sarah's body is free but her mind is enslaved, while Hetty's body is enslaved but her mind is free.  The book is filled with instances where both characters are beaten down by the institution of slavery and the expectations of society towards females.

Besides the relationship between Hetty and Sarah, Kidd richly illustated the relationships between Sarah and her mother and Hetty and her mother.  The novel does get a little bogged down in the last 3rd as Sarah moves north and her interactions with Hetty grow fewer but comes back in the end.