Thursday, November 30, 2017

Off the Shelf



 

This Novel Will Make You Dream of a Bigger, Better World

I want to start by saying that I am not someone who reads every book Oprah tells me to read. However, when I do read a book Oprah has selected, I will often find myself thinking that she was right to recommend it. And that was again the case with THE INVENTION OF WINGS by Sue Monk Kidd, author of the beloved THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES. It is a rich, multigenerational story of a young abolitionist, Sarah, born into a plantation-owning Southern family several years before the Civil War, and a young slave named Handful, who is given to Sarah on her 11th birthday as a gift. She is meant to be her handmaid for life. Handful is presented in front of everyone with a ribbon tied around her waist and a bow on the top of her head in a stirring scene that shows one of our beloved narrators as nothing more than an object, in the eyes of the South.

No comments: