I finished the Invention of Wings last week and have to say I really enjoyed it and would thoroughly recommend. I wouldn't have normally picked up a book about slavery as I like escapism, but I found the ' faction' approach and the use of first person story telling from the two main characters Handful and Sarah, really enlivened the novel. Thus we learned as we enjoyed, with the interweaving of fact and fiction, pathos and history in a unique way. I had forgotten some facts about slavery, particularly that abolitionists did not necessarily believe in racial equality. I re learned about the stifling lack of equality for American women and that, though they did not experience the violence inflicted on European suffragettes, they had very hostile backlashes in their struggle for the vote, even from such religious groups as the Quakers. What I loved most, though, was the colourful and courageous voice of Handful, who, as she said herself ' always had something smart to say' Though Handful was the slave, her stance of 'hit me if you dare' was something that her owner Sarah learned to adopt in her own struggle for equality later on. As Handful said, her body was imprisoned but her mind was not, which was the opposite to Sarah, the white woman from a privileged background. I laughed out loud at some of Handfuls turns of phrase, in particular, when she was about to face a confrontation... ' tell your backside to brace up'!! First time I have read Sue Monk Kidd, but I will look out the rest of her books now! Thanks, Gransnet, for going me the opportunity to read this one.
, plus I quickly scrolled down to here. So there may be typos!