From the celebrated author of The Secret Life of Bees and the forthcoming novel The Book of Longings, a novel about two unforgettable American women.Writing at the height of her narrative and imaginative gifts, Sue Monk Kidd presents a masterpiece of hope, daring, the quest for freedom, and the desire to have a voice in the world.Hetty “Handful” Grimke, an urban slave in early nineteenth century … 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.
Inspired by the historical figure of Sarah Grimke, Kidd goes beyond the record to flesh out the rich interior lives of all of her characters, both real and invented, including Handful’s cunning mother, Charlotte, who courts danger in her search for something better.
This exquisitely written novel is a triumph of storytelling that looks with unswerving eyes at a devastating wound in American history, through women whose struggles for liberation, empowerment, and expression will leave no reader unmoved.
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For someone who didn’t know much about slavery, I learned from this book. I hope to learn more to gain a better understanding of the horrors of our history. “Handful” was inspiring and you couldn’t help but love and feel for her and her Momma. I’ve enjoyed this book more than once.
Sarah and Nina Grimké are amazing women who gave a voice to those held in slavery. I admired their courage and determination to make a difference. I didn’t care for the profanity.
I borrowed a copy from my local library. All views expressed are my honest opinion.
Such an excellent book shining a light on what it was like in Charleston, South Carolina during the first half of the 1800s — the grim realities of slavery as well as the courage it took for a Southerner to stand against it. We also get a look at the fictionalized story of two real-life women of that day and age who not only fought for the abolition of slavery but also fought for women’s rights. What courage and determination and personal sacrifice they displayed. Amazing and important read.
A skillful blend of fact and fiction, Sue Monk Kidd takes on slavery and the abolition movement. She weaves together the fact-based story of the two Grimke sisters (Sarah and Angelina – famous Southern abolitionists) with her own imaginative story of their young slave, Handful.
Telling their stories over the course of 36 years (1803-1838), Kidd alternates chapters between Sarah and Handful, using their distinctive voices to portray two sides of the growing abolition movement and the beginnings of the women’s rights movement. Even when living apart, the bond between Sarah and Handful is as strong as that between Sarah and her sister. And the transformations both Sarah and Handful undergo through 3+ decades run parallel.
This is not an easy book to read. The horrors of slavery are graphically detailed. But it’s a ride well worth taking because you’ll finish the book with a much deeper understanding of this embarrassing chapter in American history.
It only takes a few pages to become one with the world Sue Monk Kidd creates in Charleston SC – both the charming and the horrific practices that allow the appearance of the charm. The story goes back and forth between Sarah’s wealthy white society point of view and Handful’s truth from the slaves in the household. It starts when Handful is given to Sarah as a birthday present, and her immediate adverse response to being gifted with another human being. The friendship and life contrasts from that point through the rest of their lives makes such a fascinating, warm, horrifying, breath taking story that I was completely swept up in it. Finding out at the end that the Grimke family is a real, historical and important family in the abolitionist movement and beginning of women’s rights was like icing on the beautifully designed cake.
Beautifully written and inspired by historical nineteenth century figure Sarah Grimke, an abolitionist ahead of her time, this original masterpiece alternates between the perspectives of Sarah and Hetty (“Handful,”) the handmaid given to Sarah as a “present” by her Southern mother on her eleventh birthday. Lyrical and soaring.
Some facets are easily relatable to today
This was one of the best books I’ve read this year. The characters were wonderful and the story-telling was superb.
A favorite for me. Explores the rights or lack of, of southern women in the 19th century. The Grimke sisters are aware of their lack of rights compared to their Ivy League brothers. They eventually meet Frederick Douglas after moving from Charleston SC to the Philadelphia area.
I love everything by this author. She never lets me down. Packed with meaningful stories.
Information everybody should know and understand.
Reveals history, develops unusual nuanced characters through good narrative
Thoroughly enjoyed the book. Based on a true story (embellished). One of my favorite parts of the book was after the ending. The author differentiates between the embellishments and the true facts of the characters.
A great read.
A fascinating story and I was blown away at how much of it was true (some were composite characters). Slice of history I hadn’t heard before.
What a wonderful and well researched book. Historical fiction allows the reader insight into the lives and struggles of people that came before us. Sharing the truth of a lifestyle that did exist during American history on classism, slavery, sufferagetes, and families.
Really loved this book .
I loved this wonderful historical novel. A good insight into slavery in the early 1800’s
Wonderful characters, realistic, hopeful ending – this book was hard to put down.
A big disappointment. I was expecting more, the premise was interesting, The life of an abolitionist female born into a slave owner plantation family juxtaposed with the child slave she was given on her 11th birthday. Unfortunately, 98% of the story was about the horrors of slavery, 2% was actually about the work of Sarah Grimke the abolitionist and feminist. Obviously the inhuman treatment of slaves is horrible and I have read countless books about this subject. On the other hand I had never heard of Sarah Grimke and her sister Angelina until I purchased this book. Again, it’s unfortunate that it was a very fictionalized account of the sisters and the characters did not have much depth.
Lyrical writing. enjoyed it thoroughly.