Reviews for Wench

The average rating for Wench based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-05-19 00:00:00 Daavide Barclay Set in the mid 19th Century, Wench offers a fictionalized account of a very real and strange practice. Southern slaveowners would vacation in a particular Ohio resort and take slave women along as their vacation partners, leaving their wives at home. The story centers on several slave women, their different backgrounds, experiences with slavery and relationships with the masters. All are used sexually, but one, Lizzie, holds actual feelings for her owner. Dolen Perkins-Valdez - from her Twitter page This is an engaging story, one that offers some insight into what it might have been like to be a slave. It raises questions about the experience. For example, is it at all possible for a person who is regarded as chattel to have real affection for her owner, however kind that man may be? Can a slave ever give herself freely to her owner or is any physical relationship rape by the nature of the relationship between the parties, in the same way that society today considers sex between an adult and a minor rape because a minor is assumed not to have the ability to offer responsible consent? One might think that slaves brought to free Ohio would seize every opportunity to flee. But what if their children were still back on the plantations as insurance for their return? I was engaged with the book pretty much for its entirety. I questioned a few decisions the author made for her characters, wondering if they really would have acted in such a manner. But overall, this is a solid read, offering payload in the form of a look at an odd aspect of the history of slavery in America. ==============================EXTRA STUFF Links to the author's personal, Twitter and FB pages Perkins-Valdez's subsequent novel Balm was released in 2015

Review # 2 was written on 2010-04-14 00:00:00 Christopher Driver Wench was a book club choice and I was quite frustrated by it's selection. I hate reading about slavery or anything connected to it. It makes me uncomfortable, sad and angry. Furthermore, the idea that this story focused on the lives and relationships of four slave mistresses turned my stomach. Needless to say, I struggled with this book. It was incredibly difficult for me to get through. I read and put it down so many times that I often thought of not picking it up again, but I kept coming back to it until I finished it-several weeks later. In the end, it was well worth the emotional journey. Even now, many months after reading it, I'm at a lost as to how to articulate why this book is so important, a must read and the best book of 2010 for me. There were so many moments I cringed, wanted to cry, even fight. I realized that is a part of the book's charm--the emotional roller coaster of reading it. Not to mention, the rich history Perkins-Valdez weaves in so brilliantly. She's an excellent writer. I'm happy that I finished the book and am certain that I will never think about slavery and enslaved women the same ever again. I am so grateful to have been challenged in this way.