Lizzie might be Drayle’s mistress with regards to her
position in his marriage, but she’s certainly not
the mistress. No, Lizzie is a slave and in the precarious
position of being the educated mother of her master’s only
children. But she learns that the complicated relationship she has
with Drayle can affect how she looks at freedom and at other
slaves. Each summer, the two vacation to Tawawa House, a resort in
Ohio where Lizzie befriends Sweet, Reenie and Mawu, other slaves
who have ongoing “affairs” with their masters.

Tawawa House is not just a vacation for the white men. The slave
mistresses also enjoy the privilege of working less and being away
from their plantations, where, again, they live not too shabby
lives compared to the rest of the slaves. Lizzie is a house slave;
she has a bedroom in Drayle’s house, and she and her two
children all know how to read and write. That makes it harder for
her to identify with other slaves, so Tawawa House is a welcome
respite where Lizzie can make friends who also have close and
complicated relationships with their masters.

The four women spend their time together doing chores, brushing
each other’s hair and gossiping. Knowing that they are in a
free state, they discuss running away, and their relationship with
Lizzie changes when she tells Drayle that Mawu is going to run.
Convinced that telling is in Mawu’s best interest, Lizzie
tattles not only to “save” her friend but also because
she is attached to Drayle and wants to gain his trust so he can
free their children. When Mawu is caught and brought back to Tawawa
House, Lizzie knows that things will never be the same.

Cut to part two, where we skip back in time to see
Lizzie’s life on the plantation and the beginning of her and
Drayle’s relationship. Soon after puberty, Lizzie begins to
see him looking in on her while she sleeps, and things quickly
progress to her first pregnancy. Drayle’s wife, who has no
children of her own, alternately hates and dotes on Lizzie’s
children, at one point even calling them her own. The Drayle
household becomes the home of a love triangle --- or a
pentagon.

The next time we return to Tawawa House, it’s a new summer
and Drayle’s wife has come along on the trip. The air is
changing; the friendships have matured and in some cases
over-ripened. More northerners are vacationing at the resort, and
they aren’t sure how to view these slave women who
aren’t quite free but enjoy freedoms not given to field
slaves.

There are plenty of narratives, both fiction and nonfiction,
detailing this dark time in American history. But slavery is not
something we should forget, and Dolen Perkins-Valdez looks at this
issue more from a psychological standpoint than merely from a
historical one. The characters here feel real; they aren’t
there just to teach us a history lesson.

What’s more, the novel doesn’t read like dry
historical fiction. The fact that you can understand what Lizzie,
Reenie and others are saying makes it easier to identify with the
human parts of their story. We may not be slaves or slave owners
anymore, but people today still experience unfaithful marriages and
abusive relationships. It’s unnerving but identifiable to see
how Lizzie can love a man who can also whip her or sell her at any
time. Perkins-Valdez is also bringing to life a place that actually
did exist, adding another real element to the fiction.

WENCH is literary fiction with a faster pace, historical fiction
that a modern reader can understand, and a psychological
examination of a terrible practice. Anyone will be able to
appreciate this great read.