Roxane Gay

Her perfect life is shattered when Mireille is kidnapped by armed men in front of her father's estate in Haiti and she must endure the horrors and torments of her captors while her father inexplicably resists paying for her ransom.

An Untamed State

Ditipriya Acharya

An Unflinching Tale of a Country and its Women 

 There are three Haitis- the country Americans know and the country Haitians know and the country I thought I knew. 

Roxane Gay’s debut novel, An Untamed State, is the story of a woman who battles between her identity as a Haitian woman in America and an American woman in Haiti. The psychological thriller chronicles thirteen days she spends with the men who are holding her captive. But the novel is so much more than just that. It is about being a woman amidst political turmoil. In a country torn up by hunger and disparity, it is still the women, regardless of their privilege, who suffer and sacrifice the most. Gay not only attempts to comment on the social and economic situation in Haiti through her story but also makes an impressive feminist statement.

Just outside the gates of her father’s multi-acre estate, Mirielle Duval Jameson is kidnapped while on her way to the beach with her husband and son. For thirteen days she is held captive and tortured while her father refuses to pay the ransom, in order to protect all that he has earned from greedy hands. Right from the beginning, we know that Mirielle survives the ordeal, but the real question is how much can she take before someone shows some mercy. She is punished for the crimes of her father, who returned to Haiti with pockets full and had the ability to distance himself from the suffering of those around him.

The novel suggests that in a country as torn as Haiti, being wealthy and privileged is a crime in itself, regardless of the manner in which the wealth was earned. The ease with which Sebastian Duval starts following standard protocol after his daughter is kidnapped seems to suggest that kidnapping like Mirielle’s are common, if not expected. Haiti is called the ‘kidnapping capital of the world’, after all. The half-formed political ideology that pushes the Commander, the leader of the men who kidnap her, to torture Mirielle when his dreams of getting a million dollars seem to be lost, reflect the devastating state of the country. If I had one complaint with the novel it would be that the scenes of violence and assault are brutal, sometimes to the point of seeming unnecessary. 

While the word ‘beautiful’ cannot be associated with the subject of the novel, it is the only way to describe Gay’s language and writing. Through her words, she manages to evoke anger at Mirielle’s kidnappers, shock at the toughest parts and tears at the most unexpected moments. She delves into the effects such an experience has on the victim, as well as those around her. Gay addresses the conflicting emotions of family members of victims. But beyond that, the novel also takes us, the readers, on a journey through what it is like growing up Haitian in America, falling in love and then going back to the native land.

Mirielle and Michael are flawed characters. When Mirielle says that she is a difficult person to love she means it, but that is what makes the portrayal of both characters so realistic. Rather than being righteous people who always know the best thing to do in a situation, Gay gives us characters that make the wrong choices. They have internal battles and at the end of the day have to also deal with the repercussions of their decisions. This is what makes them stay with us even after turning the last page of the book.

Mirielle’s life is clearly divided into the before and the after. The mirage of her fairy tale life is shattered on the day that she is kidnapped and then, no matter how much she wishes to, she cannot put the pieces back together. Very early on in the story, we are told of her exceptional talent of recalling almost everything that she has witnessed. In the after, this is what haunts her. She tried and failed to erase her life when she was being held captive and then she tries and fails to forget those thirteen days on being set free. An Untamed State is a study of Mirielle Duval Jameson as a woman and her life. At the same time, it is also a study of the different versions of Haiti that exist, the one in the imagination of Americans, the one in the memories of Haitians and the reality.

I definitely could not put it down and my ebook copy of the book was highlighted almost entirely. Every alternate sentence made me want to remember it forever.

Lindy

An OK novel except for the following points:
- everything about the protagonist's husband and her relationship with him is SUPER OBNOXIOUS. (view spoiler)[Among other things, it irritated me that the husband's racial fetish was never dealt with. (hide spoiler)]
- there is a weird romanticization of Midwest farm life.

azliana aziz

i am disappointed. this book has a very strong thematic plot but the writing, honestly for me it lacks punch. i feel disconnected for almost part. i try to feel for the characters but almost all of them is flat and 2 dimensional.

Liz B

This book is incredible, but it's very heavy.

The story is appalling, truthful, scared me, disgusted me, made me cry too. Especially made me think. One of the best read of the year so far. Roxane is a rare talent.

Emma Friedheim

This book hurts to read. It is also smart and well written and moving, but mostly it is painful. I have a throbbing headache and have been silently crying as I finish and I cannot say it was worth it. I'm happy to have read it (finally, I have been meaning to for the past year), but I don't think I can recommend that experience to people I love. OOF.

Tracey O’Rourke

Incredibly good, incredibly moving, incredibly HARD to read. Mirielle details all the inhumane, inhuman things that are done to her during her kidnapping and what it does to her during and after. Difficult but worth it.

Rachel

Mireille Duval Jameson has a fairy tale life in Miami with her husband and child, but it comes to an end when she visits her parents in Haiti and is kidnapped for ransom. Her father refuses to pay because he doesn't want to set a precedence and lose everything he has leaving Mireille tortured by captors that hate her family's wealth and what the represent in Haiti society. An Untamed State is a hard read, Roxane Gay writes what Mireille went through physically and emotionally without holding back. Mireille's kidnapping and her becoming undone is told to the backdrop of Haiti's inequality and it's effect on the government and citizen making it a lawless land that she never experienced because she came from a privileged family. Her mental state is heartbreaking and even more so when the ordeal is over and she is trying to remember who she once was before.

An Untamed State

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