The Invention of Wings

If you have read The Secret Life of Bees and liked it than you will love this book. I have read both of her other books and found her second novel The Mermaid Chair not quite as good as The Secret Life of Bees.  Therefore, I was hesitant to pick up this one but it is number 5 on the combined fiction and ebook list in the New York Times so I thought why not.  I am so glad I read this book.  It is now my favorite of all her books.

There are lots of great characters in this book but it really is told through the eyes of two women; Sarah a woman from a well to do family and Hetty/Handful a family slave.  The setting is Charleston, South Carolina and it begins in 1803.  Sarah's father is a well respected judge with a plantation to run and that means he is a slave owner.  Handful is one of the "house" slaves and is given to Sarah on her 11th birthday.  Sarah refuses to accept her "gift" but her mother insists.  She then decides she will give Handful her freedom and using her fathers law book rights the request for her freedom.  Her father tears it up.  This is the first we see of Sarah's rebelliousness.

Even though the circumstances of the two woman are very different they are more similar than one might think.  Both are bound by something, therefore, neither of them are truly free. Handful is physically bound to Sarah's family and often exposed to horrific punishment at the hands of Sarah's mother a cold, aloof woman.  Sarah is bound to her family's strict code of what is right and wrong for a woman of her times.  Even though she is rebellious her parents have enslaved her mentally.  Handful on the other hand mentally has always seen herself as a free woman.

Aside from the fact that the book is well written it is historical fiction which made it an even better read for me.  Sarah Grimke and her sister Angelina(Nina)  were real life abolitionists and suffragettes.  At the end of the book the author talks about the liberties she took when writing the book with regards to what were the real facts and what she changed to better suit her story. Sometimes that bothers me when I am reading but not in this case.  Perhaps it was because I was not as familiar with these woman in history as I have been with others written through a fictional perspective.  All in all I would highly recommend this book.  And if you have not read Secret Life of Bees consider reading it as well.