This
month I went from light to heartrending. I have only once before had such a
visceral reaction to a story. That novel was the brilliantly written Kedzie, St. Helena Island Slave by Bonnie Stanard which I highly recommend.
Interestingly enough, it was about the same subject matter.
The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd is a
well-known book and deservedly so. Several years ago, it was an Oprah book
selection, a surefire jettison to bestsellerdom. But I didn’t choose it for
that reason. In fact, I frequently find that I have to follow my own instinct
on what I choose to read. I am often disappointed by what is recommended by
friends. Reading is just so personal, isn’t it? I started listening to it as a
book-on-tape and quickly found I had to own the paperback.
The
story takes place during the pre-Civil War climate of the early 1800’s in
Charleston, South Carolina. It traces the relationship between Sarah Grimke, the
white daughter of an upper-class plantation-owning family and Handful, the
slave girl that was her “gift” upon the occasion of Sarah’s eleventh birthday.
The novel is based on the real life of Sarah Grimke who became one of the first
female Abolitionists and a pioneer, along with her sister, Angelina, as a
women’s rights advocate.
Growing
up in the south, I have been aware of the heinous history of slavery all my
life. Kidd’s writing is sheer poetry, but the detailed descriptions of the
repression and casual brutality sickened me and left me overwhelmed with grief
and a new awareness. Perhaps because of all the recent, violent events, there
is new understanding that we are a long way from healing the scars of racism
that were the result of slavery.
Sue
Monk Kidd quotes the words of Professor Julius Lester: “History is not just
facts and events. History is also a pain in the heart and we repeat history
until we are able to make another’s pain in the heart our own.”
I
recommend this book if you think your heart can take it.
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