Monday 19 February 2018

Sue Monk Kidd

   A book club choice for this month is "The Invention of Wings" by Sue Monk Kidd.  I have read it twice already, so this time I listened to the CD's.
   Click here for my thoughts on the book in 2014, the year that it was written.  I wrote in that blog that this book is missing the exquisite language of the author's previous books.  I now take that back.
   Everything about this book is marvellous!  Characters! Plot! Language! Setting!  It is inspirational and fabulous!  Perfect for February- black history month!

 "The Secret Life of Bees" is the first book that I read by this author.  I loved it! 
Location: peach farm in South Carolina
Lily Owens was four when she accidently shot her mother (while her parents were fighting).  Her father was cruel and eventually Lily ran away with Rosaleen, the black maid.  Lily and Rosaleen were taken in by the calendar sisters- August, May, June, April.  August had been Lily's mother's nanny.  This household of  black women nurtured Lily as she was able to come to terms with her life.  Marvellous, descriptive writing!  Couldn't put it down!  Strong, nurturing black women in the time of segregation. 


   I also loved this novel by Sue Monk Kidd.  A different theme this time!  
   Inside the church of a Benedictine monastery on Egret island, off the coast of South Carolina, there is an ornate chair carved with mermaids.  Jessie Sullivan returned to this island because her mother had cut off a finger and planted it in front of a statue of St. Serena.  She was consumed with guilt (after the assisted suicide of her husband) and followed the example of the saint.  The concern with the mother is difficult enough.
   BUT, speaking of guilt...Jessie fell in love with ...you guessed it, (it is a monastery) a monk!  Jessie was at a difficult time in her marriage: "Twenty years - when the marriage glue gets so old it starts to harden and crack".  And so, the affair began.  Brother Andrew said,"We'll be damned and we'll be saved- both".
  In fact, the affair brought Jessie to life.  She said,"I had the sense of being out on the furthest frontier of myself.  It was a surprisingly beautiful outpost".
  But she did return to her husband, where: "There would be no grand absolution, only forgiveness meted out in these precious sips.  It would well up from Hugh's heart in spoonfuls and he would feed it to me.  And it would be enough".
    This book is filled with metaphors and similies.  Fabulous writing!

  
   And here is the author.  Sue Monk Kidd- fabulous author!  She has written other non-fiction books, but these novels are extraordinary!
   She lived most of her life in Georgia, but is living in Florida now.  I hope she is working on another novel!
   Her husband is a minister and some of her non-fiction books are of a spiritual nature.
   She was influenced in her 20's by the writings of Thomas Merton.

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