Diving into an unsettling time in American history, author Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s “Wench: A Novel” takes an intimate look at the relationships between four female slaves and their white masters. The book follows Lizzie, Reenie, Sweet and Mawu, chronicling their lives as mistresses on and off of their plantation homes. Taken every year to a free state vacation spot, the women are treated as greatly as wives yet, also treated as poorly as dogs by their masters.
The novel takes place before the Civil War and the women see what the free world has to offer; they each contemplate if they should risk everything they love — their lives, the belief of a master’s “love” and, namely, their children — to escape to the world of freedom in the North.
While the book shows you the world and experiences of the four women on vacation, Perkins-Valdez decides to dig deeper into the life of Lizzie. Psychologically, the reader is sucked into Lizzie’s abuse and confusing role as a slave and mistress. While unsure of the author’s reasoning behind telling only Lizzie’s full history, the reader will find her story remarkably fascinating. However, interest in the other women’s lives may prompt readers to anticipate a sequel to the novel. Noted with this, readers may find the transition from the four characters’ stories to only Lizzie’s personal experience slightly difficult to follow.
While the book has some cause for confusion, its narrative is quite a page-turner and leaves the reader reeling at the behavior of this past way of life. “Wench” not only shows the yearning of all human beings to be free, but also depicts the complexities of human relationships. Although the plot, characters and subject matter engage the reader, the book lacks a grand finale. The story does not provide adequate closure for the characters and situations at hand — one wonders if Perkins-Valdez will write a sequel after all.
Dolen Perkins-Valdez’s writings have appeared in “The Kenyon Review,” “StoryQuarterly,” “P•M•S: poemmemoirstory,” “North Carolina Literary Review,” “Robert Olen Butler Prize Stories 2009” and “African American Review.” She is a former University of California President’s Postdoctoral Fellow and graduate of Harvard University. Born and raised in Memphis, Tennessee, she now divides her time between Seattle and Washington, DC. “Wench” is her debut novel. You can follow the author on Twitter or visit her website.
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Novels
