The Invention of Wings: A Novel

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The Invention of Wings is very well written in that it is powerful, sad and yet in places the humour comes through which makes the book uplifting and not depressing.

This is not the first novel which alludes to people once having had wings, now obsolete but their framework still existing. The function of shoulder blades is to provide the foundation for proper shoulder joint function and shoulder health. Handful's people believed that they are the nubs of their ancestor's wings, wings used to carry them freely across the skies. Hence, the title The Invention of Wings and in the book, the slaves most surely would have mourned the loss of their ability to fly. But I digress... 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… The Invention of Wings is voiced by two verbally powerful narrators: Sarah Grimké, who is inspired by the real-life abolitionist and feminist of the same name, and Hetty Handful, who is the child of your imagination. How does creating a character from the ground up differ from adapting a real person into a fictional persona, and which do you find more challenging? SMK: It's right at the bottom of my heart—it's my history, too. I was a little girl in the '50s, living in a small town in Georgia. I can feel the voices of all those who yearned to be heard, to leave their marks, to say, "I existed."

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? SUE MONK KIDD was raised in the small town of Sylvester, Georgia. She graduated from Texas Christian University in 1970 and later took creative writing courses at Emory University, as well as studying at Sewanee, Bread Loaf, and other writers’ conferences. In her forties, Kidd turned her attention to writing fiction, winning the South Carolina Fellowship in Literature and the 1996 Poets & Writers Exchange Program in Fiction. a b Sethi, Anita (January 5, 2014). "The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd – review". The Observer . Retrieved April 23, 2014.

Her first three books were spiritual memoirs describing her experiences in contemplative Christianity, the last telling the story of her journey from traditional Christianity to feminist theology. God's Joyful Surprise: Finding Yourself Loved ( Harper San Francisco, 1988) is focused on abandoning a hopeless quest for perfection and accepting one is loved as one is. When the Heart Waits: Spiritual Direction for Life's Sacred Questions (Harper San Francisco, 1990) tells of her painful midlife crisis. Finally, The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine (Harper San Francisco, 1996), discussed her encounter with women's spirituality. My book club all enjoyed this intense, powerful, and amazing story based on the real-life Grimke sisters. For more than 20 years, Kidd published mainly nonfiction books and articles; she didn't finish her first novel, the wildly successful The Secret Life of Bees, until she was 53, 12 years ago. I couldn't wait to tell her how glad I am that she found her calling and what an impact her new book had on me.

OW: That's interesting—I'd never heard of them, either. Were you in search of a subject for your next book at the time? Of course, the inventory found its way into the novel with Handful unearthing it in the library and finding her and her mother’s names and appraised values. I suppose, for me, the scene represents the inevitable confrontation with the trauma of slavery, one that’s all the more necessary because we have two hundred and forty-six years of slavery embedded in our history, and we can still hardly bear to look at it. Bernejan, Suzanne (January 24, 2014). "SUNDAY BOOK REVIEW: Taking Flight: 'The Invention of Wings,' by Sue Monk Kidd". New York Times . Retrieved April 23, 2014.