Jesmyn Ward'sSalvage the Bones - A Novel [Hardcover]2011

Jesmyn Ward's tale of a poor black family wrestling with life and taking on hurricane Katrina, is grippingly powerful with intricate details that carry the reader along. By the end of the story, each character is intimately known, and we are left with a greater understanding of the harsh realities of life. While the main character draws strength from the adventures of Medea, this is no myth. It centers on the messy, intense, and tragic slog of flawed, desperate and redeemed human beings.

I found this to be well written and interesting, although I often questioned whether people truly live this way in the outermost parts of the Gulf. Once I saw the movie "Beasts of the Souther Wild" I was reminded of this book. So, I guess that answers my question. (Apparently they do!). However, this author did a great job of presenting the trials and tribulations of this rural family and I enjoyed reading the book. I recommend this to those who appreciate good literature.

Did you watch the presentation of the National Book Awards on TV November16? The audience wildly approved the 2011 choice of Jesmyn Ward's Salvage the Bones for best novel of the year. After the announcement, I reached for my Kindle, ordered the book and settled in for what I expected to be a pleasant evening of reading. Of course, it was not.
Esch, a fifteen year-old girl whose mother dies in child birth, lives in Katrina's path in Bois Sauvage, Lousiana, with her three brothers and an emotionally absent father who spends his time drinking and struggling to board up the house. Such is not the plot for a calm and happy evening for any reader, but the story does not wait for Katrina to introduce havoc into the lives of this emotionally and financially impoverished family. The novel begins its gut-wrenching parable of pregnancy and violent death in the first paragraph when China, Skeetah's pitt-bull, gives birth to her first litter and promptly kills one of them. Shortly thereafter, the reader suffers further pangs of nausea when Esch discovers that she, like China, is pregnant, not purposefully, but by one of the casual sexual encounters she has accepted as normal since she was twelve-years-old.
Ward weaves the plot skillfully around Esch's knowledge of Greek mythology, her quest for comparisons in her own life to the story of the raging Medéa, sorceress, possessor of the Golden Fleece, a mother who kills her own children. The prose throughout is so filled with poetic metaphors, that the reader's brain strains to reach the ending of each sentence in what seems like an epic poem.
The author's ability to make each of her characters live as an important, separate ingredient in this recipe for disaster is phenomenal. Randall, the brother who might be considered "normal," dreams of playing professional basketball. Those dreams are crushed by Skeetah, sixteen, who lives only for his irrational love of China, the pregnant pit-bull. The importance of China as a character cannot be overlooked. The book begins and ends with the pit-bull, who is impregnated for material reasons, and who is offered up as bait in a dogfight even as her teats are swollen and vulnerable. She survives, bleeding but triumphant, until Medéa enters the scene, disguised as Mother Nature.

I was transported and full of a deep love, understanding and tenderness for the characters. Adored this book. It also brought the power of women to life in a way that was so personal, intimate and real. What a gift.

This is really a devastating story. Characters are amazingly rendered- a story of humans coping with the world they exist in, connecting and not connecting, trying to find love and meaning in really tough circumstances, trying to keep going the only ways they know how. My heart aches for Esch, really for her whole family. Still, there does exist love and caring , and hope.

The descriptions are so detailed that you see the dog fight, you smell the heat and you feel the water rushing in, you feel the mud in-between your toes as though your walking through the pit...you’re there with the characters. Great novel.

This book was well written with good character development, but the story didn't appeal to me. Although I had read that it was about a family coping with Katrina, that was a very small part of the book. I debated giving it 3 stars, but I gave it 4 due to the writing.

The story focuses on a very poor family in southern Mississippi from the point of view of the teenage daughter Esch. The widowed father gets odd jobs when he can and spends much time drinking beer. Randall, the oldest boy hopes to get a basketball scholarship. Skeeter, the second oldest boy, has a pit bull named China that he fights. As the story opens, China is pregnant and should soon give birth. Skeeter spends more time with his dog than his family and seems to love her more. Junior is 9 years younger than Esch and seems hyperactive and difficult to control at best.

Esch appears to be an intelligent girl who loves reading mythology books and fantasizes that she and her friends are like these mythological characters. She has been having sex with any boy who asks for it since she was 12 years old.

The older boys never have money for things they want, so they often steal them.

The father is trying to prepare for Hurricane Katrina. No hurricane has hit there in many years even though they have often been predicted, so the kids don't think it is worthwhile to prepare. Most of the book focuses on the children prior to hurricane Katrina.

I didn't really enjoy the story, but I think this book may be of more interest to teens and young adults. I should caution readers that there are some very graphic scenes of dog fights that some parents may think are inappropriate for their children.

Wonderful book that transported me to rural Mississippi just prior to and during Hurricane Katrina.
Young girl growing up without feminine guidance, in poverty -- dysfunctional home life with father and brothers. The dog fighting scenes are particularly disturbing, but I understand the brother's involvement and his love for his dog, who is a fighter.

There were so many gripping events in this book that it was difficult to put down. There were short lags in the book but it pays off in the end. The whole story is heart breaking and yet so true to life. I absolutely loved all the characters but didn't realize it until the end when my heart was pounding and I couldn't wait to find out the end to their story. I absolutely loved this book.

This was the first book that I have finished in under a week in years. It's a great read.

It has been several months since I finished reading this novel, and it still floats up in my mind often. The pacing is tight, the characters are well-developed, and it is just haunting. It's one of those rare books that seeps into you and doesn't leave. I won't describe the plot, since that can be found in the product description, but I will highly recommend this novel.

One of my favorites - although hard to read at times (warning: dog-fighting plays a central role in the plot), this is an incredible book. Can't say enough good things about it. Richly drawn, deeply felt. Thank you for this book, Ms. Ward.

I bought this after the book award, having been impressed by the goon squad, despite finding the reviews unreliable. In this case the reviews I have read I agree with, mostly. The family portrait is moving as it goes from hardship to more hardship with the difficult to envision life of the back country bayou.

I initially agreed with the opinion that the use of the mythology was poorly done. It is not like "Beloved" where the myth is part of the story, or the story is the myth rewritten in a new century. Here, the myth is read by an impoverished, pregnant adolescent in a difficult situation. Here we see how the myth may be interpreted or read and internalized centuries later in another time and place. It reinforces that myths survive even though later generations cannot relive the times of those who composed the myths but the strength of myths comes that they can be reinterpreted by generation to generation and internalized as we go.

Ward has some moving metaphors and descriptions of nature and people and dogs. Most often her diction is appropriate for the narrator's voice, a voice which takes a few pages to become used to and then its rhythms and words come alive.

Salvage The Bones takes the reader into a world that many of us are ignorant of and forces us to confront and engage in this "other America". The story is about family, love, and loss. The narrator, Esch, weaves a tale about the everyday challenges of life in the Mississippi bayou where young girls grow up fast especially when there's no mother around to guide you through the journey.
Esch and her brothers expose the world of dog fighting and leave it to the reader to examine how one can love a dog and yet place it in such absolute danger.
The book is exceptional because Ms Ward has managed to create complicated and flawed characters who we root for throughout the course of the story. Salvage The Bones is a must read.

Loved this book! It's complicated, well-written and moving. My students loved it, and we had some really great conversations as a result. I will definitely be teaching it again, and gifting it to all my friends!

Jesmyn Ward takes you directly into the rural Mississippi landscape and wraps the reader around the breathtaking lives of the Batiste family. Esche and her brothers, Randall, Skeetah and Junior, live in bonecrushing poverty with their defeated and alcoholic Daddy, Claude. Their Mama, Rose, died immediately after giving birth to little 7 year old Junior. She is missed so much by her family that her absence becomes a powerful character all of it's own.
Home is a rundown little house in a junk filled clearing known as the "pit"...the kids run the show as Daddy is present only in the physical and is unable to parent. The 3 teenage children have all managed to find their own particular passions to occupy their barren lives and idol time...Randal is a talented basketball player who has dreams of a professional career, Skeetah is obsessed with his female pit bull,China....whom he breeds and also trains to participate in organized fights. This is a way to earn money for the family and creates social status for Skeetah. Esche finds her solace in making her self available intimately to her brother's friends. This ultimately results in her becoming pregnant at 14...and this is where the story finds her. She is lovely and pathetic at the same time...as she truly loves the father of her baby and attempts to replace the mother that she misses so much in her brother's lives.
The novel is built around hurricane Katrina...and the family's efforts to survive it. I can't remember when I was so completely transported into the life of a literary character as I have been while reading about Esche. The imagery is completely stunning. Beautiful prose and rich atmospheric descriptions left me wanting to stay with the Batiste's just a little longer...it was so hard to close this book for the final time.
The issue of the dog fighting will be off putting to many...unlike some previous reviewers...I do feel that the descriptive nature of the fights were graphic. I would not have missed this book for anything...but the reader will have to decide and be forwarned.
I am so delighted that this extraordinary book won The National Book Award for 2011...so well deserved. Magnigicent.

I have wondered of the perspective of a young and outward seemingly unprepared mother. I understand more now and that it is the expecting mother's mother that has prepared her to face and to fight.

The book has so many stories in it and I had thought I only paid one. Thanks for the good read.

this book is about poverty in racial enclaves. the two female characters that stood out most to me were Esch and her mother. you can see the gender oppression in thier stories if you pay attention. Otherwise I won't spoil this good read.

This is a beautifully written story. The allegorical presentation of Esch's situation in relation to Skeet's prized companion, China, is impressive; as well as the destructive nature of powerful Katrina with the family's situation and their relationships with one another as presented before, during, and after the storm. Nice piece of literature indeed.

I really enjoyed this novel. It introduced me into a world with which I am unfamiliar with realism and sympathy. The characters were brilliantly portrayed. Both the difficulties they faced and the triumphs they enjoyed were described, giving a balanced picture of lives well lived despite the challenges of poverty, and then coupled with the ravages of a hurricane. The interrelationships between the characters were varied and interesting. The bonds of family and friendship were loving, and the conflicts natural. The importance of dogs in the lives of the characters was handled with empathy. Well done Jesmyn Ward.

From the heart, this is a disarming and emotional read.

This is a slow build over a few days. And these are the days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. An already devastated family, coping with death and poverty, is about to face the wrath Karina and deal with further loss. The family is poor, black, motherless, and living in a Mississippi bayou.

It could all be so melodramatic. But it's not. It could all be so depressing. But it's not. There is wonderful emotional depth. There is a lot of brutality and neglect but the overall story is of family loyalty and support. It is told through the eyes of a young girl, old before her time, and spoken with a clear and haunting voice.

This is one of those novels you want to describe with "___ and ___" descriptions :
lyrical and savage; poetic and raw; poverty and resilience; uncompromising and confronting; unsettling and uplifting; powerful and real ... and I could go on ... all these and more.

I have a feeling that it is one that will haunt!

Salvage the Bones: A Novel
This book is mesmerizing. I have to admit, it does start out slowly, but stick with it. It definitely picks up quickly and you will become enmeshed with all the main characters, especially, Esch, Skeetah, China and the rest of the characters who are not main charactes although they are all imporatant to this plot driven and character driven book by Jesmy Ward that won the National Book Award, as well it should have. You also get some facts about Hurricane Katrina firsthand from some of its survivors. It's hard to be the only teenage girl in a family of all boys and a negligent father and a dead mother. The boys all have lots of friends and activities to be involved in, but poor Esch has nothing except her summer reading of the Greek myths. She also has something else to be preoccupied with. Read it and find out more about it. I loved it and was crying for about the last 20-30 pages.

I loved this book! The writing was original and so descriptive, I was extremely engaged with the characters and cared about them, and loved watching their growth. I loved how the story unfolded and the real raw feelings were echoed by the real raw setting.

I thought the book would have more character development, but it didn't. The hurricane was one chapter in the book. The majority of the book was about the main character's brother and the happening with his dog, which i could care less about.

Salvage the Bones is a well written depiction of rural African-American's in coastal Louisiana. People are poor, most of the young men keep savage dogs suffer from a fatalistic inertia. When Katrina hits the bonds of family and the generosity of the local community shine, but overall its depresing

Some writers have a gift for writing novels that are all plot driven excitement, but you feel the characters well just go from adventure to adventure. This book is exciting, but the real story is with the characters and where they live. It's no cheap thriller but thrilling all the same.

This novel enabled me to embrace the unlikely heroes in each perfectly flawed character. I hate to let these souls slip away from me. I was transported into Katrina in a terrifying grip and left with hope to ponder on forever

Beautiful writing. I felt totally transported to the world Jesmyn Ward created and described in this book. Dog lovers may be uncomfortable with the dogfighting scenes, but the scenes are not horrifying the way Ward describes them.

So much happening to the characters against the backdrop of poverty, parentlessness, etc but the Batiste children fought for survival and to see tomorrow. Father of now real guide or help to his children. Shed many tears throughout. Would like to see a sequel to find out about Esch and Skeetah; all the children.

It takes a little investment, but this book is worth it. It's a searing work, but really beautifully done. I think it's on the level of Let the Great World Spin. You will want to know what happens, but sometimes you'll want to look away too.

I heard such wonderful things about this book, the reviews were great and I couldn't wait to read it. I got a quarter of the way in and had to stop. It was horrific, disgusting and heart-wrenching. Also, I was angry for and about this little girl. Angry about her father, and her brothers. What goes on here is abject poverty at its worst. I didn't expect it to be a light read, I expected a dark, tearful story. What I read broke my spirit because I could do nothing about it. I couldn't save the girl, I couldn't open the father's eyes, I couldn't do anything except turn the page. Finally, I just had to stop turning and put this one away.

I truly enjoyed reading this poignant book of the strength and love shared by a poor very humanly flawed black family which culminated and survived hurricane Katrina. The characters are vividly portrayed and the writing is lyrical and full of imagery. I highly recommend this book.

Goodreads reviews kept me motivated to finish, & I'm glad I did. But sometimes as I read this book the symbolism was so thick and glaring that I kind of resented it and it made me feel like I was back in college reading a required book.

The compelling story told here of marginalized people trying to hang on in a life where despair is just a minute away and where there is no valid parent figure falls down. The author has beautifully drawn these characters so we are subtly encouraged to believe that Skeetah loves his dog and so we might be lulled into thinking that he is willing to have her fight even in her fragile condition because of his great love instead of his own ego. You cannot truly love a dog and submit her to this awful manifestation of machismo. The dog fight scenes were difficult to read and drew attention from the real fight these young people were undergoing-the fight for survival against terrible odds in the midst of an approaching storm of incredible power.

My first Jesmyn Ward read but most definitely will not be my last. From the first opening paragraph to the last printed word my heart was engaged and captured by this family so colorfully illustrated on paper. Not since reading stories about Holocaust surviving have I felt so present during a people's struggles nor have I championed so completely for their victory. This is one story I will recommend to all my favorite book sharing friends.

This book was a compelling read. Tough to read too, because of hurricane Katrina, sad. But I couldn't put it down, just wanted to know what happened to the characters, knowing that there is probably some reality to the story.

I went into this book with something else in mind for sure. I was horrified for the girl that the story was based on. I thought there would be a lot more concerning her pregnancy. I thought there would be a lot more hurricane and a lot less dogfighting. The fights were intense and it was not my favorite. The hurricane was barely covered and there never is real closure for the book. I did like the writing style. It was very descriptive and easy to read. There is a lot going on here though and for my censoring friends this includes language, teenage sex, violence, tobacco and alcohol use. It was all very real though and it saddens me that this could have been anyone in Katrina's paths story.

Ms Ward uses her amazing descriptive powers to present a motherless black family going through the daily difficult struggles with the inevitable approach of the devastating hurricane as the ominous background story. The narrator is a young black girl . The character development is excellent and you ache for her and her brothers as the story unfolds. Throughout the story the strength and resilience of this family is evident and you root for them.