The Invention Of Wings

I bought this book because I enjoyed another book by the same author, The Secret Life of Bees, which was an excellent, thought-provoking read. This book didn't disappoint me either.It documents the life of Sarah Grimké - a character whom I didn't realise actually existed in history, and did a lot towards the abolishment of slavery and women's rights. It also follows the fictional account of a slave, Hetty 'Handful' Grimké, her mother Charlotte Grimké, and the rest of the slaves and Grimké household. All of the members of the Grimké family are based on real people, the slaves, as I found from the authors note at the back, are fictional accounts, but that doesn't take away from the poignancy as what these characters went through is undoubtedly what a lot of slaves will have gone through, too.Upon being presented with Hetty as a gift for her eleventh birthday, Sarah Grimké begins her journey of disgust and revolution regarding slave labour. She and Hetty strike up perhaps an unusual friendship, considering Sarah's sister, Mary Grimké, also had a slave and had no such relationship. I really enjoyed Hetty and Sarah's relationship, it wasn't forced, and you could see the pain for both of them - for Sarah not being able to help Hetty, and for Hetty, who was the same as Sarah in her lust for life, except born into the 'wrong' colour skin for those times. I also enjoyed Hetty's relationship with her mother, Charlotte, and both of their fiery passion for freedom - not even freedom, just to be treated like a normal [white] person.Some years later, the last Grimké sibling is born, Nina Grimké. Sarah projects her passion onto Nina, even becoming her Godmother. The two share a remarkable bond, with Nina being the bullheaded one who wants to get things done asap, and Sarah being the one that theorises and takes her time, but still wanting to get things done. The two did so much, as documented in this fact-based fiction book, to help the rights of slaves and also the rights of women, through a lot of heartache, pain, belief and headstrongness.I've never really thought about the plight of slaves, because it seems quite far in history to me. What I read in this novel disgusted me - that anyone can be treated in such an inferior way solely due to the colour of their skin. Sadly, racism is still prevalent in today's society, but at least we, as a society, have come on leaps and bounds from when this novel was set in terms of recognising it, and treating everyone as an equal.A beautifully written, haunting, thought-provoking book that will most likely stay with me for a long time.