The Invention of Wings - Sue Monk Kidd - Guest Book Review

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Guest book review by Susan Maclean

You may have come new to this author, or you may have read The Secret Life of Bees or The Mermaid Chair already.  Or you may have noticed a blurb from either inside or outside the cover of this novel which says “A powerful, sweeping novel inspired by real events, and set in the American Deep South in the nineteenth century”.  However Sue Monk Kidd crossed your radar, you will pick a winner if you read this. 

A fictional account of  the real lives of two sisters, Sarah and Angelina Grimke of Charleston, South Carolina; it contains a devastating portrayal of slavery in the Southern States of America, and it also brings to our attention the story of these two sisters who fought for the abolition of slavery and more.  And only fictional in that it is told as a story, rather than as a block of information.  It’s well written, and it had me just wanting “another chapter” before I laid the book down. 

It’s told in alternate chapters by Sarah Grimke and by Hetty Handful,  the slave who is given to Sarah on the morning of her eleventh birthday as her handmaid.  Racked with guilt about the way slaves are treated, Sarah wishes this gift be taken back; she does not want her – only to be laughed at by her family.  Sarah would like to be a lawyer, like her father, but as “just a girl” this dream will never come to fruition either.  In both cases, her wishes are ignored,  so Hetty becomes her companion, who she teaches, secretly, to read and write (against the law).  For Sarah, there is a great and devastating punishment for this crime; she is never allowed to read a book from her father’s library again – so this means no more reading, ever.  She must therefore forgo any dream of entering a man’s profession, since women of her class should marry well and run a good home.  As she grows to adulthood, and is shown off in society to seek a husband, something happens that will change her life.

The book is divided easily into chunks headed either Sarah or Hetty, so that you know immediately whose  voice you are listening to.  It’s  fascinating to note how these two different women view the same occurrences and how neither are free in the way we would understand freedom now.

The Invention of Wings covers a period prior to the American Civil War, from 1803 to 1938, and will, perhaps, open your eyes to how it was for house slaves then, the ill-treatment doled out to them as a matter of course, and, interestingly the real thoughts of those slaves, whilst bobbing the knee and repeating “yes’m”.  The abject cruelty towards fellow humans rather takes the breath away until we remember that slavery is not yet dead, and goes on all over the world.  You can read this either as a ripping novel, or as an account of the truth.  Either way, I think you may enjoy the journey.

When you think of the abolition of slavery and the emancipation of women, the name Grimke does not spring to mind;  and yet, for what they did, Grimke should be a household name in the world biography of women.  Please don’t forget to read the author’s note at the end of the book – how she found out about the Grimkes, how she decided to write about their lives, and how a young slave called Hetty became the other voice of this book.

Many thanks to Susan for reading and reviewing this novel for The Little Reader Library! Susan blogs at Mac-Adventures (with Books!), do visit her fab blog too!

When Nights Were Cold - Susanna Jones

'We could all go mad in the mountains together.'

I love walking in the fells of the English Lake District, and in Snowdonia, and have done since I was a young girl. This book really appealed to me, telling as it does the story of four young women who grasped at their freedom and embarked on daring mountaineering excursions, with dramatic, tragic consequences. For me it lived up to its promise.

Grace Farringdon is a young woman in the early 1900's who is determined to escape a life of marriage and housewifely duties to get out into the world that she has learned so much about from her father, with whom she recreated the polar expeditions with maps, her 'darning needle representing Ernest Shackleton', and her father's 'button, Captain Scott'. Against her parents' wishes, and unlike her sister Catherine, she breaks free from her family, applies for and takes up a place at Candlin College, aided by financial support from her Aunt Edith in America. There she meets and befriends Leonora Locke, Cecily Parr and Winifred Hooper. Grace forms the Antarctic Exploration Society and together the four of them spend evenings studying and recreating the great explorers and their routes in their attempts on the South Pole. Grace dreams of one day being part of such an expedition. In the meantime, she contents herself with practice with her fellow mountaineers, first in North Wales, then in the Alps at Zermatt. 

The different personalities of the four women explorers are interesting in their contrasts; for Grace, 'the purpose of the society is to conduct serious research...we're following Scott's preparation for his next expedition and learning from past ones'; whereas for Locke, who is fun, friendly and dreams of a future in acting, she sees that 'we have a lot of larks, really, don't we?'; Then there is Hooper, who looks forward to marriage to beau Teddy and a traditional life as a wife and mother after college, and who is nervous about walking in the mountains, and Parr, who is enigmatic, quiet yet forthright in her views, and unlike Locke and Grace, Parr is against the Suffragette movement. Parr brings prior knowledge of the mountains to the group, her Aunt and Uncle already having climbed extensively. But Parr has also suffered a tragic familial loss on the mountains. Though Grace befriends them both, Locke and Parr are never entirely friendly towards each other, and Locke gives a marvellous description of her chilly impression of Parr: 'I expect glaciers form under her gaze, avalanches hear her hard voice and turn straight back up the mountain.' The four of them embark on their expeditions, with the world around them on the verge of change, and nothing will be the same ever again for any one of them after their trip to the Alps. 

We hear from Grace at the time everything was happening in her life, and then fifteen years later, just merely existing in the Dulwich family home, where she tells us 'I am shivering in my memories.' She is looking back, as the only survivor of the four in the group, with her memories unclear and clouded, her mind uncertain in it's recollections, and she conjures up people from her past into her present, but are these just imaginings, are they real or merely ghosts? What really happened on the mountains?

Susanna Jones effectively conveys the excitement of the young Grace, her desire to escape the constraints of home and the restrictions imposed by society due to her gender, and get out into the world; her fascination with the polar explorers, and equally, the sadness of the withdrawn figure who looks back and ponders how hope and friendship turned to disaster, guilt and loneliness. This is the first novel I have read by this author and I found her writing a pleasure to read. 

When Nights Were Cold is an atmospheric read with an appealing storyline combining social change, friendship, adventure, excitement and tragedy - I loved it.

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Thank you very much to the publisher for sending me a copy of this novel to read and give an honest review.


Published by Mantle on 1st March 2012 ~ available in hardcover and e-book editions.


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