The Invention of Wings: A Novel

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From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees, a magnificent novel about two unforgettable American women Kidd was drawn to tell Hetty's story because she is a seeker herself, on a mission to deeply engage with the world. She grew up in a time when women were pressured to follow a traditional path, and in many ways she did: marrying, becoming a nurse, having two children. But she was also acutely aware of the women's movement and the struggle for civil rights, which not only helped shape her inner voice but at some point started telling her that writing was what she was born to do. At age 30, Kidd sat her husband down and announced her intention: to become a writer. To achieve that goal, she tapped "a reservoir inside myself—my own little ordinary genius that is the source of creative life. I think we all have one." Kidd has managed to avoid both condescension and cliché, creating an unforgettable character in the slave Handful, the emotional core of her utterly engaging third novel.”– The Boston Globe How does the spirit tree function in Handful’s life? What do you think of the rituals and meanings surrounding it?

Kidd has done a marvelous job of capturing two special and vibrant voices. . . I can’t recall reading a book about slavery that presented in such vivid and heartbreaking detail just what the daily life and labor felt like.”– The Minneapolis Star Tribune The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd was a really interesting and well researched novel about the lives of the Grimke Sisters. What was the process of writing the novel like for you? How did you go about your research? You’ve commented that you went further out on the writing limb with this novel than you’ve been before. What did you mean? Night after night, I endured these grand affairs alone, revolted by what objets d’art we were and contemptuous of how hollow society had turned out to be, and yet inexplicably, I was filled with a yearning to be one of them. Handful’s mother and the main seamstress for the Grimké family. Charlotte is intensely determined to achieve freedom for herself and Handful, rebelling in every small way she can against their lives as slaves and…

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Kidd was influenced by the writings of Thomas Merton. [4] She took creative writing courses at Emory University, Anderson University, and studied at Sewanee and the Middlebury Bread Loaf Writers' Conference. [5] Career [ edit ] 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 Grimkes’ 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. The Invention of Wings, The Secret Life of Bees, The Mermaid Chair, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter, Traveling with Pomegranates: A Mother-Daughter Story What are some of the examples of Handful’s wit and sense of irony, and how do they help her cope with the burdens of slavery?

I read because books are a form of transportation, of teaching, and of connection! Books take us to places we’ve never been, they teach us about our world, and they help us to understand human experience.” The way into the early nineteenth century, of course, is through an awful lot of research. My husband joked I spent more time in the nineteenth century than I did in the twenty-first. My aim was to create a “world” for the reader to enter, one as richly textured, tangible, and authentic as I could make it. I read and read, filling up five big notebooks with details and ideas. I drew maps of the interior of the Grimké house and the work yard, and etched a loose outline of the thirty-five year span of the story on large sheets of paper, one for each of the book’s six parts. I hung them in my study, using them to map the flow of events. I also made lots of field trips, visiting libraries, museums, historical societies, and historic houses, all of which I may have enjoyed a little too much because I finally had to make myself stop reading, mapping and traipsing about and start writing.

Another consideration is the new release by Doris Kearns Goodwin, Leadership: In Turbulent Times. I’m almost certain that this is what my hubs will be reading for “Nonfiction November” as Doris Kearns Goodwin is one of his “auto buy” authors! Once the Grimkes are home, Burke begins courting Sarah determinedly. Handful finally gets to meet Vesey but doesn't like him very much. She finds him condescending towards slaves who are not yet free. Sarah receives a marriage proposal from Burke but the timing is unfortunate; her family have become embroiled in an impeachment case connected to her father's position as a judge. He is acquitted but his health has suffered under the stress. Handful discovers her mother is pregnant with Denmark Vesey's child. My mauma was shrewd. She didn’t get any reading and writing like me. Everything she knew came from living on the scarce side of mercy. She looked at my face, how it flowed with sorrow and doubt, and she said, “You don’t believe me? Where you think these shoulder blades of yours come from, girl?” Sarah Grimké was both attracted by and repelled by organized religion. What role does it play in Sarah’s life? How, if at all, does religion influence Handful? How would you describe Handful’s spirituality?