The Invention of Wings is my RL book club's read this month and I could not put off starting the book any longer. Our meeting is on Wednesday.

It's not a book I would have picked up myself, which is what the book club is all about of course, but my apprehension also stems from a different reason: historical fiction is a tricky genre for me. When it comes to historical fiction, I have a huge admiration for authors who attempt to write it, but in all reality very few authors make it work for me. 

I love history, and because of that, historical fiction needs to be as good as non-fiction for me, and this is where historical fiction tends to fall down: HF tends to have that need to add a romance angle, or a precocious child angle, or some other gimmick that distracts from the actual story. 

So, having started The Invention of Wings, we have no less than two precocious girls:

We have an eleven-year-old, who comes out with statements like this:

"If you must err, do so on the side of audacity."

and 

"Why should God's perfection be based on having an unchanging nature?" I asked. "Isn't flexibility more perfect than stasis?"

And then we have a ten-year-old slave girl who uses the word "piazza". This is set around  Charleston in 1803, btw.

Oh, and in their "spare time", the slave girl and her mother seem to do a lot of quilting, which may or may not something they may have done - I don't know - but comes across to me as something that just might fit in nicely in a film adaptation. 

Knowing that the book is based on the factual story of Sarah Grimke, I'm really tempted to ditch the book and read up on her using some non-fiction sources. 

See, this is why historical fiction is problematic for me.

Fifteen years before Harriet Beecher Stowe wrote Uncle Tom’s Cabin, which was wholly influenced by American Slavery As It Is, a pamphlet written by Sarah, Angelina, and Angelina’s husband, Theodore Weld, and published in 1839, the Grimké sisters were out crusading not only for the immediate emancipation of slaves, but for racial equality, an idea that was radical even among abolitionists. 

That is the kind of women this book is based on!

The first book that I read by Sue Monk Kidd was The Secret Life of Bees. It didn’t mince words when it came to the cruelties that slavery brought. While I loved the candor, what touched me, even more, is that the author didn’t mention those incidents in a salacious way. She included them in the story as the reality of that time. The focus remained on the characters who evolved as real people do.

This book wasn’t different in that regard either! Like always, I will try to review the story with quotes from the book. As I mention each quote, I will include the context it is taken from and what it signified to me.

Another thing that I have always loved about Ms. Kidd’s novels is that she weaves humor into her stories. With the subject being as grim as slavery, it should be difficult to make the reader laugh. The best part is that the humor doesn’t detract or mock the theme of the story. It simply makes it possible to go on reading and with what is happening in it, this is a good thing.

The Sisters

This particular quote is taken from a scene where one of the Grimké sisters is receiving a suitor in her drawing room. The fear of carnality had been put into her very recently by a man of God in the very words that she mentions here! What’s funny is that it is the fact that the man smells of soap that is making her think carnal thoughts (or at least, what she thinks are carnal thoughts).

This is how we are introduced to one of the main characters from this book, Handful. Born a slave, she was mouthy as heck and tough as nails. I loved right from the start, which was probably what the author intended. It is mentioned in the Author’s Notes (given at the end of the book) that while there is evidence of Handful having existed, she didn’t survive long enough to play an important role in the life of the Grimké sisters. I am glad that the author thought otherwise.

More of Handful’s golden words for you. This is her pretending to be brave while she was about to be punished severely enough that it left her with a maimed foot.

This is her description of the legalese that she had to muddle her way through before she could find out if she was being sold after her master’s death or retained for her services!

A few pages later, we are introduced to the other main character, Sarah Grimké.While Handful mouthed off to people, Sarah had trouble getting out a whole sentence without stuttering. She had the same iron backbone though that Handful did, which soon became evident when she tried to emancipate Handful at the age of 11!

This is how Sarah was indoctrinated to what was really happening around her. She was just a little girl then but the incident remained with her all her life. It was a defining moment in the life of her character. Consider the following quote to see how she arrived at the root of the problem of slavery. This is an excerpt from one of her letters to Nina, her sister and another important character in the book. She raised Nina like a mother on revolutionary ideas like equality and it paid off. Nina gave her strength and achieved things that even Sarah thought meant going too far.

She changed her faith and left the safety of her house later in life, so she could be the kickass feminist that we know her to be. This is one of my favorite moments from the book. While it might come across as caustically feminazi, it wasn’t so in the book. That being said, I could see the point the men were trying to make. By taking up both the causes of slavery and feminism, the Grimké sisters caused their followers to split into two groups. However, the point lies in the fact that they even had to raise their voices for either cause.

The Mothers

Sarah’s mother is one of the important characters in the book. She terrorized her slaves and refused to relent even when she was close to death. I think this quote defines both hers and her husband’s characters perfectly.

This is how we meet Handful’s mother, Charlotte. She shaped Sarah’s and Handful’s lives by being who she was. Even though she couldn’t do anything openly, she figured small ways to show her rebellion. She continued to do so, knowing the punishment would be too severe and there’d be hell to pay if she got caught! I think this quote would fit almost anyone who is living under an oppressive regime. Don’t you?

The Slaves

Handful is much smarter than people gave her credit for. Sarah, whom she said these words to, used to think that being a woman was keeping her from making a difference. Handful knew otherwise. When the story begins, we think that Sarah would be the one protecting Handful but this quote and the next one shows us how the roles are reversed.

I can’t wait to try out another Sue Monk Kidd book after having read and loved this one. Have you read it? How did you like it?

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Originally published at midureads.wordpress.com< on September 22, 2017.

A dear friend and colleague left the company recently. To us, it meant that we’d be seeing less of her. We decided to surprise her with a trip to The Tent and bought her a bevy of books. She loved it! We all got just a bit teary eyed but that’s life, isn’t it! You meet awesome people, get to know them better, and then become sad when you part ways with them.

Anyway, since I took myself there, I had to sample some of The Tent’s goodies. But you already knew that. So, this is what I got:

The Buried Giant is a book that I have wanted to get for a while now. The delicious controversy surrounding it and the rumor that it is fantasy without being fantasy have only convinced me to get it.

I loved both The Secret Life of Bees book and the movie. Wanting to see if the author’s other books are as magical, I have purchased this one as well. Now, I have two of her books in my collection:

Since people keep pairing the two, I have wanted to read this one ever since I read The Road. Now I can! The book can be used in lieu of a door stopper but if I can survive WoT, I am sure I will live to tell the tale after having read this one!

Read and loved this one, so I wanted it for my collection. I like the cover on this edition even though I have yet to watch the movie!

I have heard mostly negative things about Memoirs of Geisha and how the author of that book has over-romanticized and out-slutted the role that geishas played in the Japanese society. From trusted sources come recommendations that present a more accurate picture. This author is one from that list and I couldn’t stop myself from getting this book.

To be honest, I don’t know why I bought this…yet. I might read it or I might give it to someone who will get more use out of it than I would. Haven’t decided!

This was a wonderful find. This book-cum-RPG thing is why I love going to The Tent. I have found all sorts of amazing things there. If you remember my illustrated Hobbit and LOTR editions, that is where I got them from.

The empty frame was filled with cards displaying characters from the book. Each card had the picture of a character at the front and some questions (that might help in brainstorming) at the back. Here are the cards:

A closer look:

Am I crazy or are they really pretty? Like the book on Rock history, I haven’t decided what I am going to do with these yet. Any ideas?

This book is kicking my all my emotions in the face right now. My annoyance/pity/frustration with Sarah is through the roof, and Handful is breaking my heart into a million and a half pieces. 

Poprawność polityczna skłania do przedstawienia Czarnych skrzydeł w samych superlatywach. Nie można inaczej mówić o książce przedstawiającej losy niewolników w Stanach Zjednoczonych, nie wypada! Jest to jednak powieść wcale nieokreślona jako “dla dzieci”, stąd czytelnik spodziewa się po niej czegoś więcej, niż tylko powielenia starego jak świat schematu: my, dobrzy, uczciwi walczymy z tymi złymi, nieuczciwymi, i gdy poniesiemy już odpowiednio imponujące ofiary, to na pewno zwyciężymy. Jednak trudno to “coś więcej” znaleźć, książka od początku do samego końca jest niestety czarno-białym przedstawieniem sytuacji, która czarno-biała wydawać się może jedynie najmłodszym i tylko największym idealistom.

Zdziwienie czytelnika trwa od pierwszych stron powieści. Zdziwienie i poczucie niejasności, coś tu nie gra. Jakim bowiem cudem mała dziewczynka, wychowywana w posiadłości białych, oczywiście posiadających niewolników, miałaby tak sama z siebie stwierdzić, że to jest złe? Bez żadnego większego zdarzenia, bez momentu przełomowego? Jasne, takich wydarzeń spotka kilka w dzieciństwie, jednak ona - bohaterka, Sara Grimke - jest przeciwna obecnemu stanowi rzeczy od samego początku, odkąd pamięta. Nie jestem w stanie tego zaakceptować.

Podobnie trudno mi zaakceptować wyraźne wywyższenie czarnych; przedstawienie niewolników jako ludzi niezwykle skomplikowanych. Cwanych - jasne. Sprytnych - oczywiście. Mających doskonały instynkt przetrwania - no wiadomo. Jednak tu ciemnoskórzy występują niczym od dawien dawna uświadomieni mędrcy, na tle zdecydowanie prostszych umysłowo właścicieli o białej skórze.

To jest zbyt proste ukazanie sceny, to nie jest rzeczywistość. Książce brakuje polotu w opisywaniu faktów, jest jak nie powieść, ale komiks o superbohaterach. Fajnie, że poznaliśmy dzięki niej siostry Grimke - postaci autentyczne, które na wiele lat przed secesją promowały nie tylko odejście od niewolnictwa, ale także zwiększenie roli kobiet w społeczeństwie. Dobrze jest dowiedzieć się o ich istnieniu, to inspirujący fakt. Ale przedstawienie postaci jest tak mało wiarygodne, że aż komiksowe; jest to historia zbyt prosta, w której o wiele większe znaczenie ma efekt działalności sióstr i to, co po sobie pozostawiły. Jednak ja nie poznając porządnej genezy, rzetelnej, autentycznej i brzmiącej realistycznie nie jestem w stanie się zachwycać historią, bo choć tło jest inspirujące, to wykonanie bardzo przeciętne. Jak ktoś pragnie rzewnej historii o trudnym losie niewolników, to wciąż o wiele lepszą lekturą pozostaje Chata wuja Toma, notabene powstała podobno także na kanwie opowieści sióstr Grimke, rzecz o wiele lepiej napisana i znacznie mocniej chwytająca za serce.

The Invention of Wings
Wydawnictwo Literackie 2014