History is definitely not an interest of mine, so I shy away from historical fiction, but as this book had so many 5-star reviews I decided to try it; I can't believe that I could so easily have dismissed this gem as "just history"!
The two central characters Mattie, the wet-nurse, and Lisbeth, the plantation owner's daughter are totally credible, well-rounded characters. Your interest in them is stimulated immediately: you care about everything they do and say. The author writes authoritatively about the lives of those on plantations in the 1800s so you begin to understand the conventions of the time, even if their "truths" go against every one of your own natural instincts.
The reader is present at Lisbeth's birth and watches her grow up and develop. You see the many prejudices through her eyes, hear all of the justifications, but you also are privy to how Mattie and her family are affected by them. It's done very cleverly by the author, but you become so involved with the characters that you can't help but be very touched by their situations. At one point I literally could not read any further - I was in tears and could not see my kindle. I feared for its waterproof safety, so put it away till later!
I have recommended this book to friends and family and anyone else who'll listen to me. As soon as I've finished this review, I'll be looking up Amazon's page for this author to see what else I might download. This book will remain on my kindle and definitely won't be deleted. It's also a book I could easily read again in a year or so.
A wonderful, very emotional story about the strong lifelong bond that forms between Lisbeth, the white daughter of a southern state plantation owner and Mattie her wet nurse, from the moment of the first feed to adulthood. The book is extremely well written, the words just flow off the page and carry you along - a very easy story to read. The lead characters are both very likeable women and the bond between them is beautifully portrayed. You can certainly feel the love they have for each other yet at the same time the book really manages to puts across the message that at heart this is a book about slavery as you see the difference in their lifestyles. You never forget that Mattie is a slave and that outside the "big house" life is very different. The author has obviously done her research well, the sections of the book focussed on the slaves quarters and the background information were very well thought out and really painted a good picture of what life was like for slaves in those times.
The book can be very moving, and I did feel a tad weepy at times. You really do feel for Mattie at some key moments in the story and share in her frustration that there is nothing she can do to change things that happen as she is totally powerless, being someone elses property and not a free woman. Lisbeth was a joy to read about, she grows up into a strong charactered beautiful woman, who most certainly knows the difference between right and wrong. Her life in fact is charmed until it comes to a point where she realises she has to make a life changing decision and accept the consequences of her choice, come what may.
It was very gripping quick reading with a well executed plotline; once you start reading you just want to carry on and my only disappointment was realising that I was 90% through the book and so close to finishing it. I really wanted the story to just go on and on because I was enjoying it so much.
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This story about the slave-owning society in the ante-bellum American South makes for a pleasant enough read, as it’s well-written and tells a gentle tale of love and loyalty. But what it doesn’t do is represent the true horror of slavery and simply glosses over the worst aspects of it. It opens with the slave woman Mattie being taken away from her baby son to care for the newly born daughter of her white masters. A close relationship develops between slave and child and the bond forged between them is strong and long-lasting in spite of the barriers and conventions of the time and place. It’s all rather predictable and superficial and doesn’t tackle the real issues. Certainly there’s no sense of the brutality of the period and in spite of the harrowing subject matter – families being separated, desperate attempts to escape on the Underground Railroad, whippings and constant toil - everything seems to go along happily and peacefully in a rather idealised community. So although I rattled along quite happily for most of the book, it failed to truly represent the evils of slavery and thus didn’t really engage me.
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I don't usually give feedback for Kindle books because not everyones choice of reading is the same, however I feel so strongly about this book that I just had to comment. I was immersed in the story from the first page, in fact I couldn't put it down until I reached the very last page with tears streaming down my face. It was such a lovely yet emotional story that I know I will need to read it again, which I have never done with any other book. This book will remain in my thoughts and my heart for a great many years as one of the best I have read. A simple yet heart warming story of the times of slavery that made you smile at times and then cry in the next chapter. Wonderful book.
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