My daughter asked me what this book was about and I told her to look at the cover. She lost interest pretty quickly when she sensed she was getting a "learning opportunity" instead of a straight answer. But I took my own lesson to heart and looked more closely at the cover than I had in the library. The evocative title is what caught my eye originally, but the bird and cage as a clear image of freedom is what has lodged in my soul (and throat) right now.
Wench is a fictional account of four slave women, focusing on the one named Lizzie, who meet when their white male owners bring them to a resort in Ohio. The women are described as the men's mistresses, and while some of them do have a loving relationship (as in Lizzie's case), they are still slaves. The heat of the story is in the complicated relationships the women have with each other and their masters, as well as the tantalizing taste of freedom in the North. There is a murky quality to the writing, sort of like being underwater and watching events occurring above the surface, perhaps befitting the women's feelings as they occasionally attend fancy dinner parties like white women and watch the free blacks work around the resort.
The bird and cage analogy for freedom is so much simpler than the lives these women share over four summers. Freedom can mean teaching yourself not to care for your children anymore so when they are sold, you don't mourn. Freedom can mean escape from slavery, either legally or by running away. Freedom can mean death. It's different for each of the women, and I can't say it is very satisfying for any of them. They have known too much suffering to be at peace anymore. For me, it was a disappointing ending. It was probably very realistic, but I like my historical fiction to come with a dash of hope for the future.
I'm also just plain tired of death in books and movies. Life is not only about death, and even if it were, there is enough all around us. Time to turn to whatever is the happiest looking book on my shelf right now, which is probably Real Simple magazine. Sounds about right.
No comments:
Post a Comment