Sue Monk Kidd: The invention of wings

Sue Monk Kidd kertoo orjuuden ajasta Amerikan etelävaltioissa, siitä miten ajatus ihmisten tasa-arvosta vähitellen ottaa tulta, ja miten erilaiset ihmiset löytävät toisensa ja alkavat ymmrtää: The invention of wings (Tinder Press, 2014).



Teos voisi olla tiukemminkin kirjoitettu, nyt mukana on monenmoista sivujuonta, mutta toisaalta tämä tekee teoksesta yleispätevämmän, uskottavamman. Kirjailija ei suuresti romantisoi kerronnan kohteitaan, mutta monenlaista arkipäivän sankaruutta kirjassa on, eletyn elämän tuntua. Rasismin järjettömyys, sitä lukija ei voi väistää kirjaa lukiessaan.

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 Grimke’s 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.

Kidd’s sweeping novel is set in motion on Sarah’s eleventh birthday, when she is given ownership of ten year old Handful, who is to be her handmaid. We follow their remarkable journeys over the next thirty five years, as both strive for a life of their own, dramatically shaping each other’s destinies and forming a complex relationship marked by guilt, defiance, estrangement and the uneasy ways of love.

As the stories build to a riveting climax, Handful will endure loss and sorrow, finding courage and a sense of self in the process. Sarah will experience crushed hopes, betrayal, unrequited love, and ostracism before leaving Charleston to find her place alongside her fearless younger sister, Angelina, as one of the early pioneers in the abolition and women’s rights movements.