The Invention of Wings (2014) by Sue Monk Kidd

 1,001 Novels: A Library of America

The Invention of Wings (2014)

by Sue Monk Kidd

Charleston, South Carolina

South Carolina: 6/14

  I've finished all the audiobooks from the Delaware to South Carolina chapter of the 1,001 Books project, so I'll be moving on to Pennsylvania in one direction and Georgia in the other- fewer than half of the books on this list have Audiobook editions so I suspect I'll be done with all the Audiobooks from this list months and years before I finished reading the rest.   The Invention of Wings is a based-on-a-true-story about the abolitionist daughter of a South Carolina slave-owning plantation family and her relationship with her slave-maid, Handful.  Both characters assume narrating duties, meaning The Invention of Wings takes 14 hours to tell a seven hour story.   The abolitionist daughter, Sarah Grimke is based on a real person with the same biography.

   It's a pretty boring story, to be honest- with no sex (Grimke lives and dies a virgin) and little violence for a book that theoretically chronicles the slave holding society of South Carolina.  The plot even includes a slave revolt, and the resultant violence is limited to one oblique hanging.  I'm pretty sure that is not how that went down.