Spotlight on Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Situated in the free state of Ohio, Tawawa House offers respite from the summer heat. A beautiful, inviting house surrounded by a dozen private cottages, the resort is favored by wealthy Southern white men who vacation there, accompanied by their enslaved mistresses.
Regular visitors Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet have forged an enduring friendship. They look forward to their annual reunion and the opportunity it affords them to talk over the changes in their lives and their respective plantations. The subject of freedom is never spoken aloud until the red-maned, spirited Mawu arrives and voices her determination to escape. To run is to leave behind the friends and families trapped at home. For some, it also means tearing the strong emotional and psychological ties that bind them to their masters.
When a fire on the resort sets off a string of tragedies, Lizzie, Reenie, and Sweet soon learn tragic lessons, that triumph and dehumanization are inseparable and that love exists even in the cruelest circumstances as they bear witness to the end of an era.
About Dolen Perkins-Valdez
Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s fiction and essays The Kenyon Review, African American Review, PMS: PoemMemoirStory, North Carolina Literary Review, Richard Wright Newsletter, and SLI: Studies in Literary Imagination. She is a 2009 finalist for the Robert Olen Butler Fiction Award. A graduate of Harvard and a former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow, Dolen splits her time between Seattle and Washington, DC. She is a faculty member of the University of Puget Sound where she teaches Creative Writing. Wench is her first book of fiction. You can visit Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s website at www.dolenperkinsvaldez.com, her blog at www.dolen.blogspot.com or connect with her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dolen.
Here’s what reviewers have to say!
“Drawing on research about the resort that eventually became the first black college, Wilberforce University, the novel explores the complexities of relationships in slavery and the abiding comfort of women’s friendships.”
“A striking debut intimately limns a Southern slave’s complicated relationship with her master. . . . Compelling and unsentimental.”
“In her debut, Perkins-Valdez eloquently plunges into a dark period of American history . . . Heart-wrenching, intriguing, original and suspenseful, this novel showcases Perkins-Valdez’s ability to bring the unfortunate past to life.”
“A striking story of heart and mind, Wench, captures time and delivers it to us. A superb and outstanding achievement.”
“With Wench, Dolen Perkins-Valdez establishes herself as a remarkable storyteller. Through unforgettable characters and luscious prose, the past is able to breathe and live on these pages. Perkins-Valdez establishes herself as a powerful new voice in fiction.” –Tayari Jones, author of Leaving Atlanta and The Untelling
“A finely wrought story that explores the emotional lives of four slave women caught in the web of the peculiar institution.”
Historical Fiction, Spotlight, fiction | JMScribe January 7, 2010
2 Comments to “Spotlight on Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez”
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By Safari Racheal, February 2, 2010 @ 4:36 am
The wench story is so much interesting with the men who often vacate the place.This sounds nice.