Write your own review!
Cathryn Conroy
A Must-Read Literary Masterpiece That Is Shocking, Heartbreaking, and an Emotional Sucker Punch
This is a book that broke my heart many times over. It shocked me. It was an emotional sucker punch. And it is a literary masterpiece.
Written by Jesmyn Ward, this is the story of the Batistes, a poor Black family living in a rundown house on rundown land peppered with rundown junk in the rural Mississippi coastal town of Bois Sauvage as Hurricane Katrina looms at sea, taking direct aim on them. And while that hurricane is churning in the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, an emotional hurricane is churning in the lives of this family.
Each of the 12 chapters covers a single day, leading up to Katrina's landfall
…more on day 11 of the book. The novel is written in the first-person voice of Esch, a 15-year-old girl who thinks she does only two things well: She can run really fast, and she enjoys having sex. And while Esch has allowed several of her older brothers' friends to have sex with her since she was 12, she has fallen in love with Manny, who is 19. Now only he is allowed to touch her. But Manny is cruelly using her, which becomes a real problem since Esch is pregnant with Manny's baby. She has no one to tell and no one to help her. Meanwhile, her older brother Skeetah, who has groomed his pit bull, China, as a prize-winning fighter, is doting on the dog as she has her first litter of puppies. Randall has thoughts only for basketball, while the littlest one, Junior, follows Esch and Randall everywhere. Their mother died in childbirth with Junior, and their father is an alcoholic who is obsessed with the coming hurricane. And then that hurricane blasts its wrath over the vulnerable land.
"Bois Sauvage" is a fictional town, meaning "wild wood" in French. It is indeed wild and almost savage. But the love and care that family and friends offer each other is what tames those wild woods where white neighbors shoot at them and the pit bulls viciously tear each other apart for their owners' financial benefit. It's not an easy life, and the characters grab at happiness wherever they can find it, be in a bottle of booze, sex, basketball, or a dog.
Masterfully written in prose that is so lyrical and expressive it is almost poetic, this novel is destined to become a classic read in English classes a century from now. It is a literary gift. The book has everything: a gripping, wrenching plot, authentic characters, the powerful symbolism of the intensity of mother love juxtaposed with brutal, bloody violence, and imagery so vivid you will feel the oppressive heat, the howling wind, and the sting of red ants. Also, it should win an award for the best similes; some were so beautiful they almost made me weep.
Perhaps the most brilliant part of the novel is how Ward has interwoven the ancient Greek myth of "The Golden Fleece" throughout the story. In this myth, Medea killed her two children by her husband Jason for revenge after he was unfaithful. Esch, who is reading Edith Hamilton's book "Mythology" for her summer assigned reading, identifies with Medea as she slowly accepts the fact of her pregnancy and shakes off the cloak of apathy.
Most of all, this is just a really, really good story about the brutal struggle for survival—one that grabbed my heart and wouldn't let go.
Read it while you can! This is one of the dozens of books the state of Texas wants to ban. The specific reason cited for "Salvage the Bones" is the explicit descriptions of 15-year-old Esch having sex. Meanwhile, those defending the book insist it has important literary value and therefore is not obscene. (less)This is so well written that I even got through most of the dog fight. Narrated by a young girl, Esch, who describes her daily life in a swamp in Louisiana as Katrina comes closer and finally bears down on the poorest of the poor, it is a heartbreaking story but one that also shows the inner strength of our forgotten neighbors. Comparing herself to Medea in the way her own life unfolds, Esch lives out the treachery of living in poverty and the choices that are made. Metaphor, simile, and the gloriously descriptive use of language lead me to believe Jesmyn Ward will be telling stories for a long time.
Tricia L. (Auburn, WA)
Heartwrenching poverty and suffering in a powerful tale.
Wow. This book put me right there watching the run-up and aftermath of Katrina. It is so eye-opening and yet I feel like there is hope for us all because of these brave characters. Great read.
Mary B. (Roswell, GA)
Beautiful and Heartbreaking Story
Salvage the Bones is the story of a family on the Gulf coast readying for Hurricane Katrina. The family is poor, black, motherless yet they work together to prepare for the hurricane, all of them doing the best they can.
The main character is a young teenage girl, named Esch, who is struggling to accept a pregnancy while longing for a confidante or some kind of help for her seemingly impossible situation. She is smitten with the baby's father, but he doesn't love her. The story of Medea is interwoven into the narrative. Will the girl betray her family for her lover or remain faithful to her father and brothers?
…more The character of the father is fascinating. He is the only one who really understands the severity of the oncoming storm and although he works as hard as possible to protect his family and their home, tearing apart outbuildings and raiding wood from an abandoned house, he ends up being unable to do much for the family during the actual storm, serving as an example of the younger generation coming of age.
One of the sons, Skeetah, has a white pit bull dog named China, who has a litter of puppies in the story. Skeetah nurtures her as if she were a lover, and a dangerous one at that. I had a hard time with the cruelty and violence of the dog fighting scenes, but the author does a good job of putting them into context of the narrative and letting you understand the motivations of members of the dog fighting culture.
Overall, it is a story of a family's loyalty to each other in the face of a dangerous natural disaster. They manage to cope in the only ways that they can and in the end discover who in their community they can really trust.
I would recommend this book to readers who like more serious and literary reading. This is not light beach book. (less)Salvage the Bones blew through my life much like Hurricane Katrina roared through Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and the lives of the Batiste family.
The day to day details of life for pregnant 14 year old Esch and her brothers are often brutal and difficult to read, but Ward's gorgeous writing and her ability to help us see through Esch's eyes and love with her heart make it worth the discomfort.
I adore a strong character-driven book and Savage the Bones is bursting with heroes! This would be a fantastic choice for a book group. Savage the Bones shines a light on one of America's greatest tragedies and gives a
…more voice to some of it's most invisible inhabitants. (less)I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The setting and the language immerse the reader in the life of a poor Mississippi family in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. While Hurricane Katrina lurks in the background it is not the focal point of the novel. Instead the plot revolves around the characters and how their own decisions, and the decisions of their loved ones, impacts their lives. The writing style is reminiscent of other Southern authors such as William Gay, Larry Brown and Tom Franklin which is high praise in my opinion.
Beth T. (Savannah, GA)
Gritty and Beautifully Wrought
This is an amazing book. It's not for the faint of heart or overly sensitive. The subject matter is hard to get through sometimes, but the author's writing is so beautiful and poetic that it somehow softens the hard edges of harsh reality and helps the reader become immersed in the characters and their story. I found myself caring about these people and what happened to them, and wasn't ready to put the book down when I turned the last page. Ms. West's is a unique and powerful voice in Southern fiction and I recommend "Salvage the Bones" as a very good read.
Eileen P. (Pittsford, NY)
Lyric and heartbreaking
What an incredible book! Salvage the Bones is a moving portrayal of a family, made up mostly of children, trying to do their best amidst rural poverty. The social and natural landscape where these characters live is unforgiving and harsh, but Jasmyn Ward shows how it is also a place where kindness and love play a particularly important role. It would be an excellent discussion book as it raises so many important social issues in an enlightening and nonjudgmental way.
.gif)