Must Read Book: The Invention of Wings: Review

dear readers,

Sorry I have been absent for awhile but I have been doing a LOT of reading so I have many reviews for you all! I love history and American history from inception to the 1960s is my passion.  Along with factual reading I enjoy historical fiction.  It is a way to put yourself in the time through interesting characters...

(I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review).

THE INVENTION OF WINGS
Written by Sue Monk Kidd
genre: literature, historical fiction, african-american history, women's history

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 Grimke 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.  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 will have a few more reviews on historical fiction set in the United States for you!

love, 
kris