Title: The Wright Sister
Author: Patty Dann
Publisher: Harper Pernnial
Format: E-book ARC ( 218 p.) NetGalley
Synopsis:
An epistolary novel of historical fiction that imagines the life of Katharine Wright and her relationship with her famous brothers, Wilbur and Orville Wright.
On December 17, 1903, Orville and Wilbur Wright flew the world's first airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, establishing the Wright Brothers as world-renowned pioneers of flight. Known to far fewer people was their whip-smart and well-educated sister Katharine, a suffragette and early feminist.
After Wilbur passed away, Katharine lived with and took care of her increasingly reclusive brother Orville, who often turned to his more confident and supportive sister to help him through fame and fortune. But when Katharine became engaged to their mutual friend, Harry Haskell, Orville felt abandoned and betrayed. He smashed a pitcher of flowers against a wall and refused to attend the wedding or speak to Katharine or Harry. As the years went on, the siblings grew further and further apart.
In The Wright Sister, Patty Dann wonderfully imagines the blossoming of Katharine, revealed in her "Marriage Diary"--in which she emerges as a frank, vibrant, intellectually and socially engaged, sexually active woman coming into her own--and her one-sided correspondence with her estranged brother as she hopes to repair their fractured relationship. Even though she pictures "Orv" throwing her letters away, Katharine cannot contain her joie de vivre, her love of married life, her strong advocacy of the suffragette cause, or her abiding affection for her stubborn sibling as she fondly recalls their shared life.
An inspiring and poignant chronicle of feminism, family, and forgiveness, The Wright Sister is an unforgettable portrait of a woman, a sister of inventors, who found a way to reinvent herself.
My Thoughts:
You say the name Wright and the first thing you think of is Orville and Wilbur Wright you don't realize they had a sister named Katharine who was with them every step of the journey with the aeroplane. She helped them more than the world knows.
In this book we see Katharine talking about her life and in between are letters to Orville who stopped speaking to her when she wed Harry Haskell. All the letters and chapters are from Katharine's point of view. We the reader that is really aren't sure why they aren't talking it's a journey one woman goes on and her emotions everything from being desperate to talk to Orville to anger that he's not answering her.
It was so beautifully written and the author really developed a great story even if it is one sided. It was definitely well written without upsetting the history we know of the wright brothers. Definitely a fabulous historical fiction book!
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