Wench: A Novel

Written by Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Narrated by Quincy Tyler Bernstine

Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is startling and original fiction that raises provocative questions of power and freedom, love and dependence. An enchanting and unforgettable novel based on little-known fact, Wench combines the narrative allure of Cane River by Lalita Tademy and the moral complexities of Edward P. Jones’s The Known World as it tells the story of four black enslaved women in the years preceding the Civil War. A stunning debut novel, Wench marks author Perkins-Valdez—previously a finalist for the 2009 Robert Olen Butler Short Fiction Prize—as a writer destined for greatness.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Mar 30, 2010
• ISBN: 9780062009425

Dolen Perkins-Valdez

Dolen Perkins-Valdez is the author of the New York Times bestselling novel Wench. In 2011 she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. She was also awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She lives in Washington, D.C. @Dolen / dolenperkinsvaldez.com

Reviews for Wench

[readingfiend_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Fascinating book on the relationships between owners and slaves. The four women and their "masters" all had different relationships but they were still slaves regardless of how well they were treated. The ending was a little "off" for me - not really sure how that last chapter fit in and wished it had been more integrated within the book somewhere. I thoroughly enjoyed it though and it was hard to put down.

[mary-197923 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This can't end!!! Incredibly written!! I am in withdrawal! I learned so much about concubines. I never knew this happened or this resort ever existed. this is a must read for ever single person. WOW!!! 10 **!!

[cmbohn · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I was in therapy this summer briefly, but long enough for my therapist to recommend this book. I read through it and several times spotted some things that I do sometimes, but I can't say it was life changing. Mostly it reminded me that I need to be honest about my feelings and I need to set clear boundaries and stick to them.

[sonorandreamer-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book is full of useful insights into how relationships work and how our behavior can change relationship cycles. My only disappointment is the lack of discussion of abuse. The assumption in this book seems to be that the relationship is not an abusive one and so is worthy of rescuing.

[dancingwaves · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A really good (though sometimes cheesy) look at relationships and how to change some of the patterns we find ourselves in within those relationships. Highly recommended.

[Selina Cooper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Wonderful, wonderful.

The very last bit at the end was a little much, a little sappy but, otherwise an exquisitely written piece of historical fiction. I don’t believe this book has gotten all the positive attention it deserves. Excellent narration as well by a narrator with a beautiful speaking voice that was a real pleasure to listen to....?. I highly recommend that you check this one out!

[mmaat_2 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

good on over-functioning and under-functioning and triangulating

[kaitye2409 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Very good. Her book allowed me to apply some of her methods into practice for my household. I recommend this book to those who wish to work on their relationships with their love ones.

[disneypope · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I have referred many people to this book over the years to help learn about basic systems theory. Most helpful.

[knittingmomof3 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A stunningly beautiful and heart-breaking novel of 4 slaves that become friends and share their hopes, dreams and learn of freedom and what it means to each of them.

[juva_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A moving story about the relationship between master and slave woman. A group of wealthy slave owners have made it a tradition to vacation with a select slave woman each year. While the masters hunt, the women gather to exchange stories, compare scars and dream of escaping to freedom. Lizzie, unlike the other women, finds herself struggling with feelings for her master. He has always been kind to her, but recently he has not taken action to free their children. Does he even intend to? Should she leave her children behind if it means a chance at freedom?Beautiful and sad, this novel sheds light on the often over-looked, yet complex relationships between master and slave. Chilling it its brutality.

[khollis_11 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Steve, advertsing executive comes to realize the power of taking responsibility for his situation and not playing the victim. Steve is in danger of losing his job but soon learns power, freedom and autonomy comes from having the right mindset. Have read other books from the "One minute manager..." series that were a LOT better!

[thesmellofbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

An incredibly helpful book, if used and not just read through, in restructuring relationships of all kinds into positive and healthy ones. Not so complicated as we might expect!

[CrystalForte · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really enjoyed this historical fiction depiction of what women went through during slavery. Some parts left my mouth open because of the surprise that you didn’t see coming as a result of simply wanting to be free. I would definitely read other work by her.

[herebedragons · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a great book for helping to unlock the reasons we hold onto anger, an emotion which is so, so damaging to our health and relationships.

[maureencean · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The cover said it was great for people who loved The Help. To assume that that there is any relationship between these two novels is in my opinion, racist. It implies that that any two books about African Americans in servitude are somehow equivalent. These novels were separated by 100 years and some quality, no offense to Ms Perkins-Valdez. My mini rant is directed to the publishers or whomever is responsible for the banner across the front of my book. That being said, this was a decent novel. If you find yourself dragging in the first summer, hold on until you go back in time to the start of Lizzie's story. From there on out, the novel is very good. Maybe a different path could have been taken with the first part....but I did like it overall.

[maryh10000 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Lots of good stuff, but also lots of generalizing about "we women" that I could have done without. However, if you read it as gender neutral, all the advice seems to be spot on.

[rubygarnet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Gorgeously, evocatively painful

[reader1009-863136 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Adult fiction; historical fiction-slavery. A peek into the lives of 4 slave mistresses during the mid 19th century, focusing on one woman in particular and the personal risks and choices that she makes when faced with the possibility of freedom.

[olivermagnus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Wench tells the story of a Tennessee slave girl, Lizzie, who at age thirteen is forced to become the concubine of her master, Nathan Drayle. The story seemed unique to me in that it focused on the now adult Lizzie being taken on several summer vacations by her master to an Ohio resort that welcomed Southern slave owners and their black slave-mistresses among its Northern guests. Lizzie and three other slave women she befriends contemplate the prospect of freedom in a town where the hotel staff are free people residing in free territory. Other subplots examine the lives of five other slaves particularly the women and their masters.

I didn't enjoy this book as much as I had hoped but there are still some very good sections. I thought the fact that Nathan moved Lizzie into the bedroom across the hall from his barren wife to be a little unbelievable. While the author tried to make Nathan a little more likable than the other slave owners I'm not sure it was successful. What kind of man would have sex with a young girl he professes to love, only to tie her up like a dog the next morning. It was very hard for me to visualize his wife meekly allowing this but perhaps the author was trying to show us that all women of that time period lived at the whim of the master....whether they were black or white.

[tshrope · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The story revolves around four women who are the mistresses, as well as the slaves, to the men who own them. They come together each summer at an unusual resort in Ohio that caters to both Northerners and Southerners. Perkins-Valdez explores many aspects of slave life in general, and the ambiguous relationship of the favored slave-mistresses in particular, but ultimately it is a story of friendship, betrayal and loyalty. This was a fast read that kept the reader interested but not fully engaged. The story and the writing lacked the power and depth that Beloved by Toni Morrison, or Song Yet Sung by James McBride carried, and I doubt I will remember the story or the characters in a few years.

[big_bang_gorilla · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This novel concentrates on the life of a slave woman who has come to love her master who sexually exploits her. Although there s a long flashback in the middle which takes us to the plantation in Tennessee on which she lives, the heart of the book is the rest of the sandwich, sited in a vacation resort in Ohio to which she accompanies her master. This book is a distant descendant of the steamy, titillating 'sex and sin on the plantation' novels which were so popular in the fifties and sixties, but this book really is anything but erotic. Serious themes such as motherlove pitted against romance and a slave who is ambivalent about her condition are the thrust here. The book is enjoyable throughout and is an engaging read, though I never got particularly interested in a few hesitant subplots, despite the supporting characters being well-drawn.

[lamour_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Tawawa House is an American resort situated in Ohio in the 1850's. To escape the heat and humity

[soubhikiewiet · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Wench caught me up from the beginning. I thought this was a great book.

[nyiper · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

How can I actually write that this novel was beautifully written....but it was. Truly horrific is the fact that this novel is part of the past of this country but keeps coming back in different forms---as terrible treatment of human beings who do not think the way you want them to. Frightening, to say the least.

[rmckeown_9 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I love coming across a new author and a first novel. According to her website, Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s fiction has appeared in The Kenyon Review, Story Quarterly, Story South, and elsewhere. In 2011, she was a finalist for two NAACP Image Awards and the Hurston-Wright Legacy Award for fiction. She was also awarded the First Novelist Award by the Black Caucus of the American Library Association. She received a DC Commission on the Arts Grant for her forthcoming second novel, Balm. Dolen teaches in the Stonecoast MFA program in Maine. She is a graduate of Harvard and a former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow at UCLA. She is a popular guest for Black History and Women's Month programs. Dolen lives in Washington, DC with her family. Her First novel, Wench is an absorbing, heart rending story of a group of women slaves in the middle of the 19th century.I have read a number of African-American novels in my time. Among these are Beloved (and others) by Toni Morrison, Eva’s Man by Gayle Jones, and of course, the novels of Zora Neale Hurston. While they all contained horrific accounts of African-Americans, and all were compelling and well-written, none had the lyric beauty of Dolen’s prose. The novel has a number of pastoral scenes frequently interrupted by the horrors of slavery.The novel centers around four slaves, Sweet, Lizzie, Reenie, and Mawu. All are owned by men with a varying degree of concern for their slaves. Lizzie was the mistress of Drayle, who treated her better than most slave owners, but, nevertheless he was not above slapping or raping her. She knew early on Drayle’s wife was unable to conceive, and so after Lizzie twice became pregnant, her focus shifted to her son Nate and her daughter Rabbit in hopes of earning their freedom.Perkins-Valdez writes, “The slaves had been back at Tawawa house for only a short time before Mawu was spotted sweeping her cottage porch as if she’d never left. As they passed one another, they gave the silent signal to meet at the stables that night: eye contact, a glance in the direction of the stables, and brushed fingertips down the forearm to signal dusk” (34). These women were resourceful.As the women became acquainted with Mawu, she told her story. Dolen writes, “Mamu told them she was telling her story so they would know why she couldn’t go back to Louisiana, why she didn’t feel the same pull they felt toward their children. She didn’t live in the big house like Lizzie. Her children did not have special favors like Sweet’s. She hadn’t had a cabin built for her like Reenie. She was just a slave like any other – beaten, used, and made to feel no different than a cow or a goat or a chicken” (42). Later in the novel, Wamu was whipped into unconsciousness because her owner, Tip, heard she was thinking about running away.Because of her special “relationship” with Drayle, Lizzie was taught to read. Perkins-Valdez writes, “As Lizzie learned the meaning s of new words and what the letters looked like on the page, it became more difficult to hide the fact she could read. She wanted to read everything. She scanned the spines of books along the shelves in Drayle’s library. She looked over [Mistress] Fran’s shoulder as she cleaned around her, straining to make out the handwriting of Fran’s mother. She wanted to read to the slaves in the cabins. There was only one man among them who could read the newspaper, and Lizzie thought she might be able to read as well as he could. She wanted to show him up, prove that women could learn, have everyone’s eyes hungry for her mouth to open and turn the piece of pulp in her hands into hope” (94-95). Despite living under the most extremely horrific circumstances, the thirst to learn burned in Lizzie’s heart.Time and again, when things seemed hopeless, and one of the women said they needed the help of a man, “No. […] Us can do this our own selves” (187). Near the end of the novel, Lizzie thinks about her daughter. Dolen writes, “As she leaned against the porch post, she thought of Rabbit and what she would teach her. This was what she would say: Don’t give in to the white man. And if you have to give in, don’t give your soul over to him. Love yourself first. Fix it so you don’t give him children. If you ever make it to freedom, remember your mammy who tried to be good to you. Hold fast to your women friends because they are going to be there when ain’t nobody else there. If you don’t believe in God, it’s all right. God believes in you. Never forget your name. Keep track of your years and how old you are. Don’t be afraid to say how you feel. Learn a craft so you always have something to barter other than your private parts” (287-288). I find it difficult to imagine a mother having to give her daughter advice like this. It reminds me of the mothers in Ferguson, Chicago, Philadelphia, and other cities where woman have to teach their children to fear the police and how to act if stopped. This passage brought tears to my eyes.The strength, courage, intelligence, and persistence of these four women was heart-warming, and, sometimes, horrific. But against overwhelming odds, these woman managed to maintain their dignity and raise children, all the while under the constant threat of the whip. Wench by Dolen Perkins-Valdez is a tremendously inspiring story. While not sugar-coating the horrors of slavery, it demonstrated how – under incredibly difficult circumstances – they were able to maintain a sense of decency to pass onto their children. 5 stars--Jim, 4/30/17

[gayla.bassham · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There were parts of this book that I thought very very powerful and parts of it that I thought were melodramatic and overwritten. I did think the writing fell apart in the very last pages of the book.

It reminded me very much of The Help, although I liked it quite a bit more than that book. It is a greater success partially, I think, because the setting of this book is less well-known and Perkins-Valdez can find more new and interesting things to say about it than Kathryn Stockett could find to say about her setting. Perkins-Valdez also has a defter hand with characterization. Fran and Master Drayle had some interesting complications and shades, and Lizzie was better drawn than most of the characters in The Help.

Still. If you can only read one book on this subject, read Valerie Martin's Property.

[mamashepp · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I don't know what I was expecting, other than a great read (which this was), but the story completely took me by surprise. A unique and heartbreaking take on slavery in the United States.

[nancynova · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

rabck from bookstogive tag game; Very well written book about an idyllic retreat for Southern men and their slave mistresses. Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu become friendly the first summer at the Ohio resort, but each has a different background and relationship with their master. They are in free territory, and debate running - and each has her own decision to wrestle with over the next few summers as they continue to meet. Until the resort closes as the civil war looms.

[msbridgetreads · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I would not suggest this book for anyone under the age of 18. Some things are a bit graphic. It starts off really slow, gets really good, then has a few more slow moments but its worth reading.