The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd

Publisher: Viking Adult, Penguin USA           
Date:January 7th 2014
Pages:  373
Source: Publisher

At the age of 11, I owned a slave I couldn't free.

The novel begins in 1803. Sarah Grimke is the daughter of Judge Grimke, and a middle child in a large family who form part of the aristocratic class of Charleston, South Carolina. The Grimkes, like all other rich white families in the town, rely on slaves to sustain their lavish lifestyle. Each family member has their own slave who attends to their needs,

Sarah is one of the two daughters of the Grimke family. On her eleventh birthday she gets the ownership of Hetty, who from then on is her personal ladies maid. The Grimke family owns many slaves, who live in a little shackle house on their plantation and do the dirty and most hard work you can imagine.


Hetty "Handful” Grimke, Sarah's  maid, yearns for life beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke household. But the separation of her mother and the longing to see her back, and feeling powerless because she can't do anything to find her back striked me the most.

The Grimke’s daughter, Sarah, has known from an early age she is meant to do something large in the world, but she is hemmed in by the limits imposed on women.As Sarah grows into a young woman, and then into middle age, her convictions about slavery and rights for women never dim, often to great personal sacrifice. Sarah defied convention, her family's religion, became a Quaker and twice refused marriage to Israel Morris, a man she loved. She left Charleston, settled in Pennsylvania, studied the Quaker religion with hopes of becoming a minister, but she finds many hardships along
the way.

Handful is one of my favourite characters that I have come across lately. Through her, we feel keenly the injustices and cruelties dealt to the slaves in Charleston. Her relationship with her mother, Charlotte, is colourfully depicted and touching.Some parts where hard to read, the whippings and other mistreatment of the slaves, their longing to be free and the many times they had to swallow what they really thought when in their owner's presence.

The Invention of Wings is a powerful read; one cannot help but feel sympathy for both Sarah and Handful.  I didn't know before reading that The Invention of Wings was based on the true story of Sarah Grimke and her sister, so I certainly read a lot about a certain period in American History by reading this book. I highly recommend it if you like books like The Color Purple or The Help.