The Invention of Wings teeters right up against the edge of "message fiction" (which I cannot stand) and then backs away from it to go back to telling the truth in a way that only good stories can. As it turns out, many of the moments of preachiness actually happened as (I didn't find out until I finished reading it) this book is based on true events. But don't expect to jump into some sort of overly detailed historical fiction. This book is alive with characters empathetic and monstrous, three dimensional in its examination of slavery, and heartbreaking in its imagery of real human beings who were pressed to the sides of life in ways far too brutal to even imagine. Kidd tells us the human side of slavery and those who rose to oppose it. Her turns of phrase are simple and rich. She writes like her characters sewed clothes, one line of perfection at a time.

I loved it.