Review: The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd (audio)

Title: The Invention of Wings   

Author: Sue Monk Kidd      

Narrator: Jenna Lamia, Adepero Oduye, Sue Monk Kidd   

Published: January 2014, Penguin Audio  

Length: 13.5 hours  

Source: Library 

From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women

Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk
Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and
the desire to have a voice in the world.

Hetty “Handful” Grimke,
an urban slave in early nineteenth century Charleston, yearns for life
beyond the suffocating walls that enclose her within the wealthy Grimke
household. 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.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in
motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten
year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid.We follow their remarkable
journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of
their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a
complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the
uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax,
Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self
in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal,
unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her
place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the
early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.

Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the
record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters,
both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte,
who courts danger in her search for something better.

This
exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with
unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through
women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will
leave no reader unmoved.

My thoughts: I had the opportunity to hear Sue Monk Kidd speak the night this book came out. At that point, I had not read her other book, The Secret Life of Bees, so I was unfamiliar with her work. But, as I sat in the auditorium of the Greenwich Library listening to her speak about herself, her reasons for writing this new book, and all the research she put into it, I knew this book was going to be an amazing read and I was definitely not mistaken. 

I decided to listen to the audio of this book, after having such a good experience with the audio of The Secret Life of Bees which I picked up shortly after that night with Sue Monk Kidd – and what a great decision. Part of that decision came from the fact that SMK read a few sections of the book that night and while she does not narrate the book herself (she just narrates the author’s note at the end) I felt that having the book read to me would really enhance the overall enjoyment of it.

I loved this story, plain and simple. It’s a powerful, thought-provoking read about the atrocities of slavery in the South. Focusing on two courageous sisters, who in my opinion should be in the history books, we follow them as they fight to not only abolish slavery but also to gain equality for women’s rights. 

Blending fact with fiction, SMK gives us this remarkable, at times tough, story of a girl who was given a slave at the age of eleven. Sarah wanted to free that slave but was unable to and basically spent her life trying to find a way to get Handful that freedom, even going so far as to teach Handful to read. 

I found myself very inspired by Sarah. She was certainly a spirited girl who knew what she wanted and wasn’t afraid to fight for it. She wanted her freedoms and wasn’t going to stand for the social norms of her times. I think that is what caused a lot of the friction between her and her mother – a character I could not stand!

At the end of the book, in the author’s note, you find out where SMK got the inspiration for this book. She also goes on to explain where she stayed true to history and where she used fiction to round out the story. This part of the book is just as interesting as the story itself, in my opinion. I love when authors share their inspiration and decisions for why they do what they do.

This is the type of book that stays with you long after you finish reading it. While I did listen to the audio version, I do have a signed copy of the print edition, which I’m glad, because it’s definitely a book that I want on my bookshelf.

Audio Thoughts: The narration of this book was beautifully done. It was easy to tell who was narrating each section and both narrators brought the characters to life. Having the author narrate the author’s note at the end was a special treat as well.

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