Wench

So I get this book by a new author, debut novel and it looks great. (actually I bought 3 new books but picked this one to start with.) The title of the book is "Wench" and its been written by Dolen Perkins-Valdez. It takes place in pre-civil war Ohio and it seems to be an imagined tale of 4 african -american female slaves/Mistress' who go to this resort in Ohio every summer with their "Masters". Looks to be an intriguing book detailing the lives and issue facing slave woman put in that precarious situation. I was very interested since the book was reviewed by Lalita Tandemy, who wrote "CAne River" which is a non-fictional tale of her family and their quest to "pass" as white through multi-generations and the struggle for each person to decide what and who they wanted to be. That was a wonderful book so I'm hoping she did not lie when she called this a finely wrought story that explores the emotional lives if four slave women caught in the web of the peculiar institution. I also am interested in doing a little on line research to find out if resorts like this existed (I bet they did) and finding out more. THe other reason I picked the book is to round out all the reading I am doing for my US History to 1877 class. I think it will be fun to keep my head in the same era for a while. Looking forward to starting the book soon!