I think I will break all records this year with the amount of books I am reading. Either I have got faster at reading or this hobby of fine is becoming an obsession. I always have an obsession, at least until something else comes along to take my interest and a new obsession begins. Books, however, will never fade because they are an addiction as well. Honestly, two days without reading a book and I'm climbing walls.
I digress. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is a powerful and compelling book set in Charleston, USA in the 1800's. Two children, Sarah, the daughter of a Judge, and Handful, a slave girl, form a bond that spans the years into adulthood. Sarah is presented with Handful (known to her owners as Hetty) as birthday present. Sarah has always been a difficult daughter. She abhors slavery and her position in life as a female unable to follow her dream of becoming a lawyer like her brother. She writes a note to her father saying she frees Handful. Her father tears up the note.
The story runs with alternate chapters as seen from Sarah, then Handful's perspective as they grow up. It prays on Sarah's mind that Handful's mother Charlotte has asked her to help her daughter into freedom but there seems so little she can do. After the man she was hoping to marry turns out to have several fiancees Sarah turns her attention to her little sister Nina, asking her mother if she can be Nina's Godmother. As Nina grows Sarah's ideas run off on her and her influence will change the course of their lives.
On doctors orders Sarah's father is advised to leave on a trip to somewhere quiet by the sea to recover from illness. Seeing this as an opportunity to split the two sisters, Sarah is sent with her father.After he dies she is reluctant to return home. She has met Israel Morris, a Quaker and is later invited to visit him and his family. Sarah is drawn to him but he is a married man with children.
Meanwhile, Charlotte, who is pregnant, disappears one day and Handful confronts the man she was seeing, Denmark, a freed slave who is trying to organise a revolt of slaves against masters. Handful finds herself caught up in the plans, getting to places the men can't. When someone betrays them several men are arrested and Denmark makes a run for it, having assured Handful that her name will not be mentioned because they are only after the leader. He is later picked up and after a trial is hung, as are the others.
When Israel's wife dies Sarah goes to visit and begins to teach the children and becomes involved with the Quakers. However, Israel's sister Catherine is unhappy about the arrangement and cleverly arranges for her removal. Sarah lives with another woman (a Quaker minister) and her family for a while.
Eventually Nina joins her sister and from there the two sisters begin their campaign to highlight the evils of slavery. Although the Quakers are against slavery they cannot tolerate the action the two sisters are involved with and they are expelled. After struggles they are invited to speak in New York and there follows a whole new life of speaking in public in support of the abolition of slavery.
Handful writes to say that her mother has returned with the child she was carrying, a girl called Sky. And then she writes to say that her mother has died and she and Sky are leaving even if they die to do so. Sarah plans a quick return home. Will she be in time to save Handful and finally fulfill the promise she made to Charlotte all those years ago?
I did not know until the end of the book that the story is based on the two sisters, Sarah and Nina, and their struggles in support of the abolition of slavery. They went against their family, community, the church and the times. Sue Monk Kidd says she invented Handful (though she did exist but died of an unknown illness not long after her punishment of one lash for letting Sarah teach her to read). Denmark also existed as did Israel Morris and others. The author admits she gave Handful another life with Charlotte her mother and wove fiction around the lives of Sarah and her sister Nina. The story confronts the cruelty but also shows the strength and resilience of the slaves to be who they were, come what may, through their story quilts and the spirit tree.
This is a moving story, full of much I cannot even write here. It is so well written and not a book you can easily put down, yet sometimes you want to. It will stay with you, this one.
I digress. The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is a powerful and compelling book set in Charleston, USA in the 1800's. Two children, Sarah, the daughter of a Judge, and Handful, a slave girl, form a bond that spans the years into adulthood. Sarah is presented with Handful (known to her owners as Hetty) as birthday present. Sarah has always been a difficult daughter. She abhors slavery and her position in life as a female unable to follow her dream of becoming a lawyer like her brother. She writes a note to her father saying she frees Handful. Her father tears up the note.
The story runs with alternate chapters as seen from Sarah, then Handful's perspective as they grow up. It prays on Sarah's mind that Handful's mother Charlotte has asked her to help her daughter into freedom but there seems so little she can do. After the man she was hoping to marry turns out to have several fiancees Sarah turns her attention to her little sister Nina, asking her mother if she can be Nina's Godmother. As Nina grows Sarah's ideas run off on her and her influence will change the course of their lives.
On doctors orders Sarah's father is advised to leave on a trip to somewhere quiet by the sea to recover from illness. Seeing this as an opportunity to split the two sisters, Sarah is sent with her father.After he dies she is reluctant to return home. She has met Israel Morris, a Quaker and is later invited to visit him and his family. Sarah is drawn to him but he is a married man with children.
Meanwhile, Charlotte, who is pregnant, disappears one day and Handful confronts the man she was seeing, Denmark, a freed slave who is trying to organise a revolt of slaves against masters. Handful finds herself caught up in the plans, getting to places the men can't. When someone betrays them several men are arrested and Denmark makes a run for it, having assured Handful that her name will not be mentioned because they are only after the leader. He is later picked up and after a trial is hung, as are the others.
When Israel's wife dies Sarah goes to visit and begins to teach the children and becomes involved with the Quakers. However, Israel's sister Catherine is unhappy about the arrangement and cleverly arranges for her removal. Sarah lives with another woman (a Quaker minister) and her family for a while.
Eventually Nina joins her sister and from there the two sisters begin their campaign to highlight the evils of slavery. Although the Quakers are against slavery they cannot tolerate the action the two sisters are involved with and they are expelled. After struggles they are invited to speak in New York and there follows a whole new life of speaking in public in support of the abolition of slavery.
Handful writes to say that her mother has returned with the child she was carrying, a girl called Sky. And then she writes to say that her mother has died and she and Sky are leaving even if they die to do so. Sarah plans a quick return home. Will she be in time to save Handful and finally fulfill the promise she made to Charlotte all those years ago?
I did not know until the end of the book that the story is based on the two sisters, Sarah and Nina, and their struggles in support of the abolition of slavery. They went against their family, community, the church and the times. Sue Monk Kidd says she invented Handful (though she did exist but died of an unknown illness not long after her punishment of one lash for letting Sarah teach her to read). Denmark also existed as did Israel Morris and others. The author admits she gave Handful another life with Charlotte her mother and wove fiction around the lives of Sarah and her sister Nina. The story confronts the cruelty but also shows the strength and resilience of the slaves to be who they were, come what may, through their story quilts and the spirit tree.
This is a moving story, full of much I cannot even write here. It is so well written and not a book you can easily put down, yet sometimes you want to. It will stay with you, this one.
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