The Invention of Wings

Locations
Call Number: Fiction, Adult Book / Fiction / General / Kidd, Sue Monk
On Shelf At: Downtown Library, Malletts Creek Branch, Pittsfield Branch, Traverwood Branch

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	Due 05-03-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction	4-week checkout	Due 05-20-2024
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Kidd, Sue Monk	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Kidd, Sue Monk	4-week checkout	On Shelf
Pittsfield Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Kidd, Sue Monk	4-week checkout	Due 05-17-2024
Traverwood Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Kidd, Sue Monk	4-week checkout	On Shelf

"The story follows Hetty "Handful" Grimke, a Charleston slave, and Sarah, the daughter of the wealthy Grimke family. The novel begins on Sarah's eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership over Handful, who is to be her handmaid. "The Invention of Wings" follows the next thirty-five years of their lives. Inspired in part by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke (a feminist, suffragist and, importantly, an abolitionist), Kidd allows herself to go beyond the record to flesh out the inner lives of all the characters, both real and imagined"-- Provided by publisher.

REVIEWS & SUMMARIES

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

compelling submitted by unknown on February 17, 2014, 3:43pm A very compelling historical fiction of the Real life Grimke sisters who were one of America's first abolitionists. Recommended for all readers

Engrossing tale of two strong girls/women submitted by Shayne on April 19, 2014, 6:57am If you love fiction and you also love American history, read this book! You will take an incredible journey into slave-holding Charleston, South Carolina, around the turn of the 19th century. You will read the story of a real person, Sarah Grimke, and the story of a primarily fictional person, the young slave girl given to Sarah on her 11th birthday, Hetty "Handful". "The Invention of Wings" is as close a look into the early to mid-1800s as a 21st-century American will get. Populated with real and fictional characters, the reader will witness the horrors of slavery along with the efforts by both blacks and whites to fight the south's "peculiar institution", all while being swept up in the day to day lives of Sarah and Handful, the two amazing girls growing to womanhood in the course of the novel.

very good submitted by Lucy S on August 2, 2014, 4:40am I really enjoyed this historical novel that followed the life of the Grimke sisters. The characters were well drawn and sweep you into the story.

loved it! submitted by smgop on June 27, 2015, 2:25pm couldn't put it down.

Eye-opening submitted by Susan4Pax -prev. sueij- on July 2, 2015, 10:24am What I absolutely, wholeheartedly loved about this book: the well-researched and yet totally readable story of women in the South (Black and White) in the early 1800's, how their lives looked and felt, and how these twined and affected each other. What they could and couldn't see because of the society they lived in. What race and culture and gender did to limit their lives. What some did to make due within those limits, and what a few did to try to break out.

Sarah Grimke, the White main character in this fictionalized version of her very real life, was one of the first women Abolitionists and women's rights activists. Handful, the slave given to her as a handmaid on her 11th birthday, is the primary Black woman followed throughout the story, although Handful's mother's story is nearly as important. All three women's stories are eye-opening, and will make you ache for their lives and limits.

My small personal critique of this book: I am probably one of the few people who read this popularly acclaimed book who actually knew who Sarah Grimke was before I read the book (though not to this degree), and who Denmark Vesey was (a Black freedom fighter of great infamy and renown). And when the stories twined to the point that Handful is identified as Vesey's almost-daughter... well... it just stretched belief a little too far for me. I see the author's point. For most people who don't know either Grimke's or Vesey's names, tying them together in this story means that people may actually learn about both of these *critical* people from American history. I applaud that. But it was hard to read for me, knowing more about who they were. I suppose it's not impossible that history happened like this, but I can't imagine that it really would have.

Through a fluke of when reserve books came available at the library, I read this book back to back with Octavia Butler's _Kindred_, a story of a contemporary Black woman in the 1970's who time travels to 1815 Maryland to her White many-times-great-grandfather's plantation. Reading these two books together was a fortuitous and deeply meaningful pairing toward having a greater understanding of what life was like for slave women.

very engaging submitted by Victoria Booker on August 28, 2017, 4:28pm Very engaging novel about the Grimke sisters, abolition and slaves who fought against oppression and captivity. A great selection for book clubs.

eye opening submitted by shivatavane on July 17, 2019, 9:58pm What I absolutely, wholeheartedly loved about this book: the well-researched and yet totally readable story of women in the South (Black and White) in the early 1800's, how their lives looked and felt, and how these twined and affected each other. What they could and couldn't see because of the society they lived in. What race and culture and gender did to limit their lives. What some did to make due within those limits, and what a few did to try to break out.

Sarah Grimke, the White main character in this fictionalized version of her very real life, was one of the first women Abolitionists and women's rights activists. Handful, the slave given to her as a handmaid on her 11th birthday, is the primary Black woman followed throughout the story, although Handful's mother's story is nearly as important. All three women's stories are eye-opening, and will make you ache for their lives and limits.

My small personal critique of this book: I am probably one of the few people who read this popularly acclaimed book who actually knew who Sarah Grimke was before I read the book (though not to this degree), and who Denmark Vesey was (a Black freedom fighter of great infamy and renown). And when the stories twined to the point that Handful is identified as Vesey's almost-daughter... well... it just stretched belief a little too far for me. I see the author's point. For most people who don't know either Grimke's or Vesey's names, tying them together in this story means that people may actually learn about both of these *critical* people from American history. I applaud that. But it was hard to read for me, knowing more about who they were. I suppose it's not impossible that history happened like this, but I can't imagine that it really would have.

Through a fluke of when reserve books came available at the library, I read this book back to back with Octavia Butler's _Kindred_, a story of a contemporary Black woman in the 1970's who time travels to 1815 Maryland to her White many-times-great-grandfather's plantation. Reading these two books together was a fortuitous and deeply meaningful pairing toward having a greater understanding of what life was like for slave women.

The Invention of Wings submitted by Elizabethreads on June 13, 2020, 10:09am This historical tale set in 1800s Charleston follows the stories of two women: well-to-do Sarah Grimke, and her family's slave and seamstress, Handful. Gripping and well-researched, it would have been easy for this story to be told in heavy, clunky sentences. But the writing is fluid and light, capturing Handful's family history, her longing for freedom, and her resilient spirit. It also deftly portrays the rules and expectations placed on Sarah, who embraces the abolitionist movement in a time when women were viewed as decorative. Both Handful and Sarah's dreams of a new world place them at odds with Charleston's society, and sometimes, each other.