Salvage the Bones
Jan 4, 2012
Salvage the Bones
Authors: Jesmyn Ward
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA (August 30, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1608195228
ISBN-13: 978-1608195220
Winner of the 2011 National Book Award
What the publisher says:
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.
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.
What Idgie Says:
This is a RAW, gripping story. This family has so little in the way of money, home, food. They are loosely held together with a complete lack of what a family normally keeps in the way of rules/regulations/household actions....but they are are a tight-knit family in their own way. They have to be to survive.
Esch is the only girl in a child pack of 4. Their mother died during the home birth of the last boy, Junior. Their father drinks too much and brings home just enough money to provide the home with Top Ramen and dent can specials. Esch craves affection and finds it where she can, which appears to be leading to a whole new problem for her. The star of the house is the fighting pit bull, whose puppies could bring in money to help with so much... if they survive. To top it all off, Katrina is coming and no one but the father seems to realize just how dangerous this storm could become - how it could threaten the little bit they have.
This story is graphic - not just physically, but mentally. The family members' souls are laid bare. Their wants, cravings, needs. It's a sad story. But beneath all that sadness there is a glimmer. A glimmer of hope, love, caring and the ever present dream in each of us that tomorrow might be better, that there could be a brighter future.
I recommend this book - but be in a strong mood when you read it.
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I have an essay and Q & A below from Jesmyn if you would like to know more about how this book was formed.
The below was written by Jesmyn as an essay on the Kindle Blog and was published there originally:
Blog:
Spurred by the death of my brother, my first novel was something of a love letter to the kind of young black men that I grew up with: these young men were tender, fierce, worldly, and sometimes, painfully naïve. In my second novel, I wanted to write a book that revolved around the kind of young women I grew up with; I wanted to pen a love letter to them. Specifically, I wanted to write about a young girl who is growing up in a world full of men, and I wanted to explore how she understands womanhood, how she fares under all the pressures that bear down on poor black girls in the South. I'd also wanted to write about the character that would become Esch's brother, Skeetah, and his pit bull, for years. There was something about the strange love that Skeetah felt for his dog that fascinated me. As I wrote the novel, I discovered that the strange love Skeetah felt for his dog was only one of many loves that would be central to the book and influence Esch's understanding of womanhood and motherhood.
I wanted to write Salvage the Bones because I loved these characters so much I wanted them to speak. I wanted readers needed to know what it means to be a young black girl in the South, what it means for Esch to find models of womanhood in the world, for readers to understand how these models affect her and girls like her. I also wanted to write about Hurricane Katrina once I was able to crawl out of the despair the hurricane inspired in me because I wanted to write against the stereotypes that I encountered about people who didn't evacuate for the storm. I wanted to reveal that people who stayed here for the storm did so because they had always done so, that their refusal to evacuate was dictated by habit, a lack of means, and a sense of loyalty: as they'd always done, they would face this storm in their homes. In this way, the Batiste family is like many families on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Even though Esch's and Skeetah's and their family's stories are specific to a certain time and place, I hope that readers understand that in larger ways, they aren't. Just as Esch is able to read books about Greek mythology and find something of herself in them and them in her, I'm hoping that readers read Salvage the Bones and find themselves in my characters, and my characters in them.
--Jesmyn Ward
Spurred by the death of my brother, my first novel was something of a love letter to the kind of young black men that I grew up with: these young men were tender, fierce, worldly, and sometimes, painfully naïve. In my second novel, I wanted to write a book that revolved around the kind of young women I grew up with; I wanted to pen a love letter to them. Specifically, I wanted to write about a young girl who is growing up in a world full of men, and I wanted to explore how she understands womanhood, how she fares under all the pressures that bear down on poor black girls in the South. I'd also wanted to write about the character that would become Esch's brother, Skeetah, and his pit bull, for years. There was something about the strange love that Skeetah felt for his dog that fascinated me. As I wrote the novel, I discovered that the strange love Skeetah felt for his dog was only one of many loves that would be central to the book and influence Esch's understanding of womanhood and motherhood.
I wanted to write Salvage the Bones because I loved these characters so much I wanted them to speak. I wanted readers needed to know what it means to be a young black girl in the South, what it means for Esch to find models of womanhood in the world, for readers to understand how these models affect her and girls like her. I also wanted to write about Hurricane Katrina once I was able to crawl out of the despair the hurricane inspired in me because I wanted to write against the stereotypes that I encountered about people who didn't evacuate for the storm. I wanted to reveal that people who stayed here for the storm did so because they had always done so, that their refusal to evacuate was dictated by habit, a lack of means, and a sense of loyalty: as they'd always done, they would face this storm in their homes. In this way, the Batiste family is like many families on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
Even though Esch's and Skeetah's and their family's stories are specific to a certain time and place, I hope that readers understand that in larger ways, they aren't. Just as Esch is able to read books about Greek mythology and find something of herself in them and them in her, I'm hoping that readers read Salvage the Bones and find themselves in my characters, and my characters in them.
--Jesmyn Ward
From Printsasia.com: Jesmyn Ward, the 2011 National Book Award winner for Fiction, provides us with an excellently useful interview on her award- winning book “Salvage the Bones”. Her responses to our questions throw some valuable light on the backdrop of her story, her characters, her forthcoming book and many things more. Find this interview HERE.
Reviewed by Idgie. If you would like to have the Dew review a book, please contact me at dewonthekudzu@gmail.com
