Jesmyn Ward

Enduring a hardscrabble existence as the children of alcoholic and absent parents, four siblings from a coastal Mississippi town prepare their meager stores for the arrival of Hurricane Katrina while struggling with such challenges as teen pregnancy and a dying litter of prize pups.

Salvage the Bones

A gritty but tender novel about family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina.

A Novel

Clara Gauthier

I imagine that this is the way Medea felt about Jason when she fell in love, when she knew him; that she looked at him and felt a fire eating up through her rib cage, turning her blood to boil, evaporating hotly out of every inch of her skin. I feel it so strongly that I cannot imagine how Manny does not feel it, too.

The terrible truth of what I am flares like a dry fall fire in my stomach, eating all the fallen pine needles. 

so good. devastating and tragic and finding light in the darkest moments. such a lovely reflection on siblinghood and teenage pregnancy and love and poverty and dogs. truly obsessed with the use of medea throughout the book as someone who was also obsessed with her story as an early teen. 

Ward tears away the boundaries of people and animals and place which challenges “right” and “wrong” and made me think in terms of harm and sustainability

Arie P

Heather Margaret

I fully believe Jesmyn Ward can write no wrong.

Olivia

Jeannette Ordas

Pretty compelling read, especially as hurricane Katrina gets closer and the only one in the book who seems to take it seriously is the drunken, ineffectual dad. I liked the characters, especially Esch and her brother Skeet, but glazed over the greek mythology bits. Very well written and almost poetic. 3.5 stars.

Amy Thibodeau

This book was violent, painful and difficult to read but it was powerful and masterfully written. It was a look into lives I have no idea about, wrought in painstaking detail. I knew about the suffering that people experienced in the wake of hurricane Katrina but reading this account made it real in a way that, quite frankly, I don't think I was entirely prepared for. 

I struggled a lot with the dog fighting/animal abuse represented in the book and almost stopped reading a number of times because of it. In particular, I felt conflicted because it was hard to reconcile my genuine affection for a number of their characters with their behavior towards animals. It was also hard to accept that many of these people engaging in dog fighting also loved their animals. But fiction isn't meant to be a salve that uncomplicated life and I'm glad I continued. But if reading about dog fighting in detail isn't something you think you can stomach, this book isn't for you. 

The last two chapters are phenomenal.

Winner of the National Book Award Jesmyn Ward, two-time National Book Award winner and author of Sing, Unburied, Sing, delivers a gritty but tender novel about family and poverty in the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. A hurricane is building over the Gulf of Mexico, threatening the coastal town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi, and Esch's father is growing concerned. A hard drinker, largely absent, he doesn't show concern for much else. Esch and her three brothers are stocking food, but there isn't much to save. Lately, Esch can't keep down what food she gets; she's fourteen and pregnant. Her brother Skeetah is sneaking scraps for his prized pitbull's new litter, dying one by one in the dirt. Meanwhile, brothers Randall and Junior try to stake their claim in a family long on child's play and short on parenting. As the twelve days that make up the novel's framework yield to their dramatic conclusion, this unforgettable family--motherless children sacrificing for one another as they can, protecting and nurturing where love is scarce--pulls itself up to face another day. A big-hearted novel about familial love and community against all odds, and a wrenching look at the lonesome, brutal, and restrictive realities of rural poverty, Salvage the Bones is muscled with poetry, revelatory, and real.

Janice Hopper

Oh my god, this book.

I've had it on my to-read list for ages. I'd found it recommended somewhere, and it sounded like something I wanted to read. So I finally got around to it.

The story is about a poor black family in the run-up to Hurricane Katrina. It's about a family making do without a mother and mostly without a father. The with the family and their friends are mostly looking out for each other, though without the resources that many of us absolutely take for granted.
It's not the life I live, and it's not the life I'm familiar with. I don't fight dogs, or approve of fighting dogs. I don't need to steal to get the resources that I need. I didn't get pregnant when I was 14. I never tried to ride out a Cat 5 hurricane.

But when I read this story, I understand a little better why some of these things might happen. People do what they have to do to survive, first and foremost. They love who they love, whether it's a no-account man who sired a child he won't claim, or a white fighting dog, or the littlest brother that grew up without a mother, who now clings to his brother and sister who raised him like his life depends on it. Because it does. All our lives depend on other people. Even in poverty and without much hope, people live, and love, and do the absolute goddamn best they can. Even if that "best" looks skewed to those of us who have lived our lives with more opportunities.

I fucking loved this book, and it absolutely broke my heart. Sometimes I had to put it down because it was just SO MUCH TO READ, OMG. I thought the language was absolutely beautiful. I rarely highlight passages anymore, but I did in this book. 

I read it on Scribd, but I'm pretty sure I'll buy my own copy of this book to have and re-read, and think about. This is the best book I've read in years.

Emma Friedheim

Jesmyn Ward is a brilliant writer. That much is clear. I thiiiink I liked this more than Sing, Unburied, Sing?? It was vivid and moving and impressive. And yet. Still short of five stars, for me.

Melody Izard

How can something so raw and violent and bleak and hopeless be beautiful and sentimental and push through a tiny glimmer of shiny shiny hope? If someone told me I would read a book with dog fighting as a central theme and come away with snot streaming from my nose and tears wiped all over the backs of my hands - and not tears from mourning any dead dog - but tears hoping hoping hoping for better things on the other side of the hurricane, why, I just would have said "we'll see about that" expecting to tolerate the book and then swearing off Jesmyn Ward from here on until eternity.

But, nope, I've just added "Where the Line Bleeds" to my "to read" list. 

The story of the Batiste family has been moving toward a swirl and burn since Rose died. And with the backdrop of a category 5 storm building, building and choosing it's target of destruction - more things than any human spirit can handle come bulls-eye toward this family made up of Esch, Skeetah, Randall, Junior, their father and their dogs.

Summer Stanley

Extremely eye-opening and engaging. I especially enjoyed the choice to make a 12 chapter book for the 12 days of the story.

Daryl Houston

A beautifully written page-turner. Among the best I've read so far this year.

Heather Ellis

Esch and her family live in Bois Sauvage, Mississippi on a fairly isolated tract of land. This novel takes place over the course of twelve days. The family is preparing for the impending hurricane and this really is a book about belonging, kinship, and the effects of rural poverty. 
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Jesmyn Ward’s languid prose describes every emotion felt in this novel. Everything feels as if it were alive. She does an excellent job at capturing the emotional struggles of her characters and the tender moments between the siblings.
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Our protagonist is Esch, fourteen year old girl who finds herself surrounded by men. I found myself constantly rooting for her and hoping that she would find desire within herself, instead of constantly seeking approval from those around her. 
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Ward has powerful imagery throughout the book. This book definitely has a strong sense of place and if you are someone who likes descriptions of setting I would highly recommend this book.
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Like other reviewers have mentioned, the sections on dog fighting were hard to read, but I don’t think they detract from the novel. Skeetah’s love for China and her puppies were so raw and tender.

Rachel

Salvage the Bones is about a family living in Mississippi in 2005 as Katrina is getting ready to hit. The focus is on Esch being pregnant, her brothers, dog fighting, her alcoholic that sometimes there father and the impending hurricane in the Gulf. The kids mother died giving birth to the youngest child and they have pretty much been left to fend for themselves making them a close knit family. I went in expecting the book to be more about the family preparing, fighting and surviving the hurricane and it isn’t, it was still a good read, but I was looking forward to that based on the description. Some scenes are hard to read, like puppies being born, dog fights, and detailed injuries. They are hard to read because they are well written to the point it makes you cringe. With that said, I did not like the dog fighting parts. There was some glamorizing of it and that annoyed me. I’m giving it three stars because it was an interesting read, but I think there was just too much going on to make it an emotional read. It was almost there, but not quite.

Salvage the Bones

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