An Untamed State

After I started reading this book, I began asking myself, "Why did I buy this?" It was violent both physically and psychologically, not at all my kind of reading. I think it was suggested to me in an ad that appeared on my Kindle. Usually, these ads are apropos (based on my buying preferences) and I have discovered some great books by paying attention to the Kindle suggestions. But how I ended up with this book remains a mystery. This frightening and anxiety-provoking novel was just too "icky" (such a literary term!) for me. I never did finish it because the tone just kept getting darker and darker. I see that quite a few people liked it, which is great. The world needs many kinds of taste.

A raw and brutal story but a page turner. Getting into the minds of these characters was fascinating...particularly the main character. I find it so interesting to see how deep a person may have to go to survive incredible horror....real life horror...which is what Mirelle has to do. Where do people find the strength? Some do. Some cannot.

This book did not compel me to read, and I skipped ahead many times to get it behind me. There was something about the writing that did not ring true.
I know there are episodes akin to those places where lawlessness reigns. I had not read about Roxanne Gay prior to reading this book, and when I did I was impressed with her credentials. She has worked hard for all she attained, but I did not see scholarship in this novel, nor certainly not a literary turn. I am sure there are many people who have enjoyed this book, but I really did not.

I LOVED this book - the plot was so engaging and you really feel for Mireille. However the author and/or editor were off of their game. On several occasions, the author uses the same adjective or phrase multiple times within a page or two. Specific, detailed words and descriptions make books more enjoyable, but reading was often halted by, "Wait, didn't she just use this word on the last page??" I'm not being really picky, either. I think the average reader would pick up on the repetitive uses, as well. I can think of at least 3 times they occur in the book. Otherwise, 5 stars!

I despise this book and regret reading it. By far the most disturbing and depressing book I have ever read, full of endless violence and brutality. The first part of the book is scene after scene of gang rape and torture. The second part is about the main character dealing with PTSD after her ordeal, which was handled well initially but then skips ahead to the future as if the author just got bored of writing about it. It then culminated with an unbelievable yet unsettling ending. Many of the characters are not fully developed and some of the scenes are a bit cliche. I wish I had not finished the book but I kept hoping for some sort of closure which never came.

I LOVED this book - the plot was so engaging and you really feel for Mireille. However the author and/or editor were off of their game. On several occasions, the author uses the same adjective or phrase multiple times within a page or two. Specific, detailed words and descriptions make books more enjoyable, but reading was often halted by, "Wait, didn't she just use this word on the last page??" I'm not being really picky, either. I think the average reader would pick up on the repetitive uses, as well. I can think of at least 3 times they occur in the book. Otherwise, 5 stars!

I despise this book and regret reading it. By far the most disturbing and depressing book I have ever read, full of endless violence and brutality. The first part of the book is scene after scene of gang rape and torture. The second part is about the main character dealing with PTSD after her ordeal, which was handled well initially but then skips ahead to the future as if the author just got bored of writing about it. It then culminated with an unbelievable yet unsettling ending. Many of the characters are not fully developed and some of the scenes are a bit cliche. I wish I had not finished the book but I kept hoping for some sort of closure which never came.

I can't say enough about how much I hated this book. The author is very talented but the characters in this were entirely unrelatable and unrealistic. Be warned - it is very graphic with many scenes of violence and rape.

An Untamed State is a novel that spotlights victims of trauma and their road to recovery. The central character, Mirielle, is the American-born daughter of Haitian parents. Her parents, born from humble beginnings eventually move back to Haiti to continue their prosperous business ventures. While visiting her parents with her husband and infant son, Mireille is kidnapped, repeatedly gang-raped, physically and psychologically tortured for nearly two weeks because her father refuses to pay the ransom for her release.

The first half of the novel is told from Mireille’s point of view opening with the kidnapping and two weeks of captivity where details of her abuse yield some cringe-worthy passages. It is introspective in nature because the reader stays with her while she systemically invokes her will to survive despite the toll it takes on her body and psyche. Insight into her mindset and other character backstories are encapsulated in flashback segments delivered while in captivity as things progress from bad to worse. The author succeeded in giving the reader a strong sense of place gained from a frightened and beaten heroine struggling to survive the nightmare as negotiations deteriorate. The second half of the book is post-kidnapping and deals with her suffering terribly from post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), her physical and mental recuperation, her husband's struggles and frustration, and her parent’s guilt and shame.

This is a character-driven novel that contains some elements of social commentary (Haitian class and educational inequality, social disparities), romance, familial dysfunction, and politics. However, the vast majority of the book focuses on the torture and the aftereffects of dealing with PTSD. Not having any experience with PTSD or kidnap victims, I can only surmise the author researched and presented a realistic experience.

I found quite a few repetitive passages and some of the dialogue and “love” scenes a bit heavy-handed. Although I empathized and sympathized with the lead character, I found her (and most) characters a bit too “Made for TV” perfect, “cardboard-ish,” and dare I say, unlikeable. While I have no issues with the grim and dark subject matter, I expected a bit more on Haitian socio-economic history, government corruption, etc. based on the book blurbs and advanced press releases. Those topics are superficially interwoven into the story. I’m not discounting the book for my obvious misunderstanding, but just want to mention it because others might have have the same assumptions based on the book synopsis.

The world is full of senseless, horrible violence against women. Every day you can read about it in the news, be it in far-flung places like The Congo, Yemen or Afghanistan or places close to home. I do not need to read about it endlessly in a novel. Who could really enjoy it? What was there to enjoy? Endless repetitive wallowing in gang rape and brutalization of a woman. I can only imagine that the book is Roxane Gay’s catharsis as she herself was gang raped. After a while, I skipped ahead and everywhere I landed randomly, there was more abuse, so much so that the violence itself became shockingly boring. And despite being a first generation Haitian-American, the picture she paints about Haïti sound like they were conjured up by an armchair tourist. There was nothing that recommends the book, no insights into the strange country that is Haïti, human, political or otherwise. Just naked violence. There are unfortunately plenty of people who enjoy this. I am not one of them.

Roxane Gay captures the trauma, tragedy, and intimacy of close relationships in this story.

While people may say this is a difficult book to read it's really a fantastic story about love, loss, and empowerment. The book is certainly dark, and the story captures the darkness and lostness that Miri is feeling. There are passive chapters between the flashbacks and narration but it tells a story that shows how complicated relationships are, and how finicky people can be, and what it can take to be a family. The relationship between Miri and Michael is fascinating and fragile and the story articulates so many things about recovery and friends that aren't often talked about.

Also the parallels, between Miri and Michael, between Florida and Haiti, between Miri and her mother, and so many other comparisons really carried through the narrative. We see how much these people change in just a few pages and how different life is for them all by the end. The parallels that Miri draws as well to a 'before' and 'after' mimic the 'before' and 'after' setup of the book that somehow manages to condense so many thoughts on sexual assault, identity, and safety.

By not wrapping up everything nicely at the end it's a harrowing, enlightening story that everyone should read.

This was a hard book to read, even harder to write I would guess, given author Roxanne Gay's recent memoir, Hunger, about being gang raped as a child. In this novel, written before the memoir, a young Haitian mother is kidnapped and held captive for 13 days while her father refuses, on principle, to negotiate a ransom with her kidnappers. Gay holds little back in describing how Miri is raped, beaten, starved and mentally tortured. Her resistance to her captors is as fierce as their evil and nearly as destructive. Her descent into this hell and her herculean struggle to rise above it after her release are no less disturbing. There are aspects of An Untamed State I wish were different. The horror became repetitive and consequently a bit numbing. The political issues and the searing divide between rich and poor seemed, at times, overdrawn. This is a brave book, hard to criticize. Buckle your seat belt.

Near the end of Roxane Gay's debut novel, the narrator reports the existence of "an unauthorized movie" based on her life "that airs regularly on a cable network." Of its optimistic ending, she notes dismissively, "It comforts me to imagine my kidnapping had been that neatly endured and resolved." This is clearly meant as a rejection of the pat morality and predictable emotional progression of made-for-TV movies, but it doesn't quite come off, for the simple and unfortunate reason that AN UNTAMED STATE is much closer to such fare than it realizes. It's elevated by a powerful if over-elaborated character study of its protagonist and a fairly sophisticated understanding of the shattering effects of trauma, but unnecessary detail and a poorly-realized key supporting character make this a good novel with flashes of greatness rather than an all-around great novel. Either way, it's eminently worth reading for those interested in its very contemporary themes.

Mireille Duval Jameson is the daughter of a wealthy Haitian contractor; her life has been one of privilege rather than the poverty most Americans, including Mireille's husband Michael, imagine when they think of Haiti. But her sheltered existence is destroyed when gangsters kidnap her and demand an enormous ransom. Mireille's father refuses to pay, and she enters a world of unspeakable suffering, where survival may require the abandonment of all her happy memories, the destruction of her very identity. But after the terror ends, can she rebuild that identity, or is it too late to return to the life she shared with her devoted husband and their infant son?

In the first half of the novel, descriptions of Mireille's kidnapping alternate with flashbacks that recount her childhood and (mostly) the development of her bond with Michael. This is a useful device in theory, but in practice the flashbacks break the harrowing momentum of her captivity, and quickly become repetitive: Michael wants to move their relationship forward, Mireille resists, eventually they strike an acceptable balance. The character study of Mireille-- a woman of great strength and sometimes self-defeating stubbornness-- is an effective one, but not so original or nuanced as to require this much material. The pacing is further disrupted by occasional third-person chapters featuring Michael and other members of Mireille's family. Nothing that happens in these chapters particularly needs to be described, and Gay's third-person prose isn't as strong as Mireille's hypnotic voice.

That voice is particularly powerful as Mireille begins to break down under the pressure of the terrible things that are happening to her. Her responses are both a logical progression of the personality traits demonstrated during similar if much smaller traumas in the flashbacks, and a reminder that "breakdown" is an apt psychological term. The personae that we present to the world are destroyed by trauma, and random, inexplicable instincts are all that is left. By turns Mireille resists and surrenders, is stoic or despairing, because consistent responses are impossible when one's identity has been shattered. And even after she is set free, the ups and downs continue. At times she is almost able to become her "old self;" at others she barely knows who or where she is. This does set the novel apart from movies-of-the-week, which treat recovery as a slow but steady positive progression.

Where the resemblance to less thoughtful treatments of recovery appears is in a journey Mireille takes in the last quarter of the novel. I can't say much about it for fear of spoilers, but it involves a supporting character who is atypically under-developed, a stock "tough exterior with a heart of gold" type, and whose relationship with Mireille consistently feels like a thematic marker rather than a human connection. I respect the points Gay is making about female solidarity and unexpected strength, but those concerns would be better served if demonstrated via a more rounded character. The novel also relies too much on precisely the kind of graceful fade-out that many TV movies use when the constant, painful business of recovery has ceased to be dramatically interesting, and transitions to a series of epilogues that offer rather a lot of on-the-nose closure. Even a TV-movie would probably have avoided the heavy-handed development in the penultimate chapter.

If it sounds like I'm being unduly critical, it's because I think Gay is too talented a writer to be relying on these devices. She's addressing important issues of poverty, privilege, and the cost of survival, and doing so with a strong but subtle moral vision and a keen eye for the personal idiosyncrasies these dilemmas create. Mireille's parents are especially well-characterized, with a quiet strength that is at once heartwarming and terrifying. Even that "heavy-handed development" is in service to a bold theme that carries over into the novel's excellent final chapter, a theme I wish Gay had emphasized more strongly. But however I feel about the balance among its elements, this is an unforgettable piece of fiction whose virtues are more evident on later reflection than they are during an initial reading. AN UNTAMED STATE is not a fully successful novel, but it's a striking and intriguing one, by a very promising new talent.

I listened to the audible version and the narration is excellent. However, the story itself is just okay. It's written very well and the plot is interesting. I loved the setting. I thought the way PTSD was portrayed was realistic. Although the book is very graphic and hard to read at times. Which is realistic, but also disturbing. The book is also very repetitive at times and that can get annoying. I hated almost all of the characters. Especially Michael, so I was annoyed when a good amount of the book was about their relationship. So I wanted to like this book more, but most of the time I just felt angry, disturbed, and annoyed.

An Untamed State is not an easy book to read. It's not meant to be. If there's another book that tackles violence against women and the resulting PTSD, I don't know what it is. But once you begin it, it has the gravitational pull of a strong magnet: it's impossible to tear yourself away.

Mireille is the proud daughter of a proud "pull himself up from the bootstrings" Haitian magnate, who lives in lavish excess in Haiti, where most of his fellow countryman live in abject poverty. In the opening pages, Mireille and her American husband Michael - a "blan" - are on their way to the beach with their baby; their car is surrounded, Mireille is taken, and $1 million in ransom is demanded. It's business-as-usual in Haiti, but these kidnappers do not count on her father's pragmatism: he knows that if he gives in this time, his other family members will eventually be kidnapped as well as the kidnappers become bolder and bolder. He guesses she will return relatively unharmed once they realize he will not give in to their blackmail. He guesses wrong.

The resulting scenes are among the most harrowing you will ever read about abuse against women, written by an author who was a victim of rape herself. Just when the reading becomes almost too intense, Roxane Gay switches to back-story of Mireille and Michael's courtship and marriage. Bland in comparison, and slightly idealized, these scenes are very necessary and also mimic what Mireille is going through: periods of release before being plunged back into her nightmare. Just as harrowing is the portrayal of PTSD; it rings authentic and sad and true.

Underlying the story is a political question: do those who are almost obscenely rich have a responsibility to their starving countryman who live in the most wretched of conditions? And also, there is a feminist question: Why is it that so many corrupt men take out their worst frustrations on women who are unable to physically fight back? When Mireille says to the Commander, the "main man": "You are complicit too. Don't think for a second you aren't", she is reminding him that violence begets violence and that those in power (whether wealthy or not) will always exert this type of heinous control over the less powerful. It's a riveting debut.

Another book about rape.

That’s what I thought when I first picked up An Untamed State by Roxane Gay. But I had read Bad Feminist and loved it, and I was dying to see what Gay could do with fiction. So, I bought the book, and I procrastinated.

There are so many books about rape, about broken bodies and broken women and the terror of a person’s dignity being ripped from her body and soul. There are too many books that take me too long to read because they’re just too hard to get through. Finally, An Untamed State found its way into my car on a camping trip, and I was compelled, if I wanted to read at all, to read the only book I had brought with me. And so I began, and once I did, I couldn’t put it down.

An Untamed State differs profoundly from so many of those other books I mentioned above that detail the destruction of the spirit and the grotesque actions taken against so many women and men. It differs because for the most part the book is told from the first person perspective of Mireille Jameson-Duval, a young wife and mother kidnapped in Haiti and held for a ransom her wealthy father is not wont to pay.

From the beginning, Mireille is a fighter, a resilient captive, something every woman who has ever been raped wishes she had been. In many ways, Mireille embodies this woman, this ideal survivor: someone who fights, someone who doesn’t let the most precious parts of herself be so easily taken, someone many women who experience rape aren’t even given the chance to be because of drugs, coercion, false security and bondage. For women everywhere who have experienced even a fraction of the pain that Mireille does in An Untamed State, the main character offers a sliver of redemption, a reason for the celebration of the strength of women despite their circumstances, despite what can be done to the body.

Though the book is riveting with action, what comes out most clearly are ideas of what it means to be raped, how it feels to be robbed of your dignity, and what the path to healing looks like. Gay, a survivor of rape herself, is able to capture these sentiments in a way that makes the novel less about the horrors that have happened to Mireille and more about Mireille, the person, the survivor, the woman. Unlike so many other books that merely describe graphic scenes with seemingly little purpose but to provide shock value and make the reader hate the criminal, An Untamed State focuses on what is happening on the inside for the survivor.

Mireille goes through feelings of guilt, self-hatred, inadequacy and hopelessness despite her strength. After her ordeal, she has an unending desire to be empty that manifests itself in an eating disorder, she is unable to communicate with her family in the same way, she is fearful and hateful towards nearly all men, and she can’t seem to find herself. She experiences selective memory and symptoms of PTSD, flying through flashbacks that are set off by things as seemingly inane as a scent. Eventually a therapist tells Mireille the truth about her road to recovery: “You will get better, but you will never be okay, not in the way you once were.”

This is the truth of rape, of trauma, of loss of control over your own body, this is the truth that Mireille, that Roxane Gay, that every woman and man that has ever experienced any ordeal even resembling that of Mireille’s must accept. The sense of power, of hope and beauty despite the horror and ugliness in the world is what raises this novel from the depths of what could’ve been tragic and grotesque to the height of inspiration. An Untamed State gives those whose bodies have been stolen, morphed and used the hope and realization that they are not shattered. They may be cracked, they may wear scars, whether physical or not, but they have the capacity to live if they can find the will and the strength and perhaps even the vulnerability to allow those around them to help.

An Untamed State by Roxane Gay is one of the most fantastic novels of the past few years, and it is by far the most inspiring novel I’ve read in a long time.

I could not put down this novel. Be prepared when you start reading Roxane Gay's "An Untamed State. A wife and mother Mirielle lives a near perfect life. She is a confident lawyer who owns a firm, and is married to a wonderful husband, and has an infant child. Mirielle comes from Haiti, and her father is an engineer. Although they immigrated to the U.S. years ago, her father decides to open his own firm, because he is tired of the racism and bigotry that he endures on the job in America. The firm becomes prosperous, and her family lives in extravagant wealth compared to the rest of the country.

One day, while visiting in Haiti, Mirielle, her husband and her child step out of her father's gated palace to make a brief trip, when armed men surround her car. She is kidnapped. She has heard about other people whose families pay the ransom immediately, and they are freed unharmed. But, she knows her father, and believes he will not budge. Unfortunately, she is right. Mirielle suffers through horrific abuses at the hands of these monsters. It also discusses her recovery from these attacks.

Gay does a masterful job of contrasting the states of Mirielle's life compared to the horrible conditions she suffers at the hands of her captors. It's always a before an after: what life was like before she entered into her current situation, her husband romancing her, times she supported her mother in law as she battled cancer... and then her current situation where she suffers torture and other forms of assault. Gay doesn't miss anything to show the state of a women who suffers through an assault that tears apart her whole self.

I'm sort of shocked that some would argue that this story isn't that important because it happens to women in "third world" countries all the time. To be honest, it makes me angry. To belittle the plight of any woman (whether it's fictional or not) in any form is callous. And it's not just women in the "third world" who suffer through these abuses, women in so-called industrialized countries face these same assaults on their being, to the point where they are damaged for life. And it's not just the woman who suffers through the abuse, it destroys their families, their marriages, relationships and lives.

It reminds me of "Her," a memoir by Christa Parravani, whose twin sister, Cara, was violently assaulted and beaten in a park, then ended up addicted to drugs to bury her pain. Cara ended up losing her marriage and eventually died of a drug overdose. Gay does an accurate job of showing how this violence damages the lives of women.

This book is powerful, and still disturbs me, even after finishing this book two weeks later.

That being said, I enjoyed this book, and will probably read it again, some day in the future. It was one of my favorite reads this year.

Roxane Gay seems to be getting a lot of attention these days and rightfully so - she's already known for her short stories and now her new novel AN UNTAMED STATE is suddenly popping up everywhere. So I thought it would be worth the read -- and it was, although not in the way I originally expected.

An Untamed State is the story of Mireille, an American-born wife and mother with prosperous Haitian parents. While on holiday visiting her parents in Haiti, Mireille is kidnapped. Her wealthy father refuses to pay the demanded ransom and for the ensuing two weeks, she is repeatedly (and graphically) tortured and gang-raped in the worst ways. This horrifying experience makes up the first half of the novel, all told from Mireille's point of view.

The second half of the novel is about Mireille's life post-kidnapping. As you can probably imagine, there is so much to deal with here. Post-traumatic stress disorder being chief among her problems, but also the psychological damage of her father's choices, the struggles of her husband to cope with what happened to her, and her re-adjustment to "normal" life (is there such a thing after a trauma like this?). Needless to say, there is a lot of material here for Roxanne Gay to plumb. But she does so quite well given the confines of a novel.

In the context of the plot summary I've addressed here, Gay does an exemplary job and it's worth reading the novel for this alone. If I might be allowed one small criticism: she wanted to stray into social commentary (ie, Haitian politics, rape culture, etc). I can't blame her for that...what author or thinking person wouldn't want to hit this subject when there is so much to say? However, in the confines of this novel, there wasn't any room to "go there." So she couldn't follow through with where you know she wanted to go. So it was just left hanging there. And that felt wrong. I would rather she focused on one thing (PTSD, Mireille's father's choices, familial readjustment, etc OR Haitian class politics, rape culture, social ills) and do it well. Pick one thing so nothing ends up short shrift, if that makes sense.

That aside, if you're looking for insight into Haitian politics or social problems, this isn't going to really enlighten you that much. The novel is about Mireille. But that said, the novel is definitely worth reading.

With its first arresting page -- "Once upon a time, in a far off land, I was kidnapped by a gang of fearless yet terrified young men with so much impossible hope beating inside their bodies it burned their very skin and strengthened their will right through their bones. They held me captive for thirteen days. They wanted to break me. I was not personal. I was not broken. This is what I tell myself." -- you get an immediate sense of harrowing, complicated and nuanced story that author Roxane Gay is about to tell.

I am sure much will be written about Roxane's handling of her protagonist Mireille's kidnapping and its brutal, visceral aftermath. It is handled deftly, unapologetically and very much rooted from Mireille's perspective. The violence that Mireille is forced to endure is of course the cleaving moment of her life: everything immediately becomes either before or after.

And this, was to me, the most impressive part of Gay's novel: the loving and complicated portrait of the loving and complicated Mireille. Before, during and after her ordeal, Mireille isn't simple or easy to understand. She is temperamental, willful and speaks without thinking, saying hurtful things she both means and doesn't mean. She is driven, conflicted, critical and nostalgic. She hurts the one she loves, loves the ones who hurt her, and understands, with frightening accuracy, the consequences of her actions, but lives her life only the way the only way she see how.

It was an utter pleasure to see how all characters develop, grow and change through out every aspect of this story. Like people in your own life, Gay's cast of characters are not easy to define or pin down. Their choices through out the book will surprise you, disappoint you, enrage you, challenge you and break your heart. You will this book looking at the people in your own life, and the world you live in, with new eyes.

I highly recommend this incredible debut novel, and am already looking forward to reading her next two works: her upcoming collection of essays, "Bad Feminist" and her forthcoming memoir.

This book has the potential to be one of the most shocking, violent, harrowing, uncomfortable, and emotional reading experiences you may ever have in your life. It may also turn out to be one of the most important. Having said all that, the story book opens very well. The opening sentence grabbed me and ensured a purchase for the store owner, and as it turns out, the first chapter is one of the most gripping and terrifying chapters I have ever read.

Be warned, gentle reader: This ain’t no fairytale.

A young and happily married couple is violently torn apart by a group of heartless thugs who kidnap the young wife (Mireille Duval Jameson) in front of her husband and young toddler son strapped in the back seat of the family car. It turns out the kidnapping is motivated by revenge against the couple’s parents as well as a personal (and very warped) ideology and the book gains even more emotional tension when the family of the kidnapping victim refuses to pay the ransom for their daughter’s release.

One has to ask at this point: At what price is this decision made? Who will pay this price? And why would a man - a family man, no less - make such a decision?

Other readers and reviewers have criticised Ms Gay for coming up with an ending they call convenient. In my opinion, flaws in the story telling aspect of this release are an irrelevancy. What happens, or doesn’t happen to one of the bad guys is not the book’s point. Characterisation is strong. There are really only two “dominant” bad characters and they are well portrayed in the sense that it is easy to hate them every time they make an appearance.

The writing is quietly moving and is of a consistently high level throughout. Mireille is quite the young woman, lawyer and doting mother and this is obvious right at the story’s beginning. Her life is destroyed by a character that she loved almost as much as life itself. And yet even amongst the cruelty, violence and madness of the “event” she managed to came up with some worthy thoughts, which manage to imply more than they actually say. For example, taken from page seven of the trade paperback edition:

“’Go easy or we kill ... Everything you’ve ever loved.’ I did not move. The gun dug deeper and deeper. I unclenched my fingers and stood. I stared at my family. I do not love easily...”.

And on page nine: “Someone muttered, ’she’s crazy.’ ... I was on the edge of crazy. I hadn’t fallen in yet.”

*

The tale is populated with short, intense chapters which enhance the reading experience, and yet, for some obscure reason, the publishers choose to use chalk markings for chapter headings. I say to publishers: PLEASE DO NOT DO THIS. I pay good money ($30 AUS) to own the book. I want to read it, not learn to count.

In closing then: this book is a must read. Buy it, or borrow it, but don't miss it. It is not the kind of thing you will pick up and re-read, but simply having it on your bookshelf is enough of a reminder to never forget the horrors of what one human being can do to another.

A lesson that should never be forgotten.

BFN Greggorio!

The first paragraph slammed me into the book, not unlike Mireille was slammed into the black SUV that carried her away from her loved ones on that fateful humid day in Haiti. As a Haitian, I had whiplash from shaking my head as I read the book. I knew exactly what the author wanted to portray in this horrific tale and she hit the mark. The title is very a propos.
Fast-paced, poignant but I find Mireille’s laments drag a bit too long and too frequently. From the moment she was “taken” the reader “gets it” that her life would never be the same. Perhaps, the reader would have loved to learn more about what made the State so “untamed” that Haitians could justify perpetrating this kind of horror on each other.
Great story, Ms. Gay. You managed to put me under the bed with Mireille where I smelled her fear, her unwashed body….Looking forward to more.

This extraordinary fiction explores the immigrant experience through the lens of a certain culture, that experience’s impact on his American-born children, and his return from the Diaspora as a stranger in his own land. Within this frame, Mireille and Michael’s fairy-tale love story bookends the hate-filled story of Mireille’s abduction. Mireille’s forceful first-person delivery ensures her lead role as the determined survivor, and adroitly alternates with the third-person presentation of all supporting characters, including her parents and Michael, her husband. Perhaps purposefully, these players are not developed equally. The Commander, is never commanding. His portrayal is too cruel, too evil to escape caricature. The mother-in-law is brilliantly drawn with a clear, realistic humanity. However, all this plus the vividly displayed, deep class divide are diluted by pages-long repetition. A more subtle handling of Mireille’s kidnapping and recovery and fewer scenes of graphic violence would have further strengthened an exceptional work.

Wow! This book opens up explosively and immediately hooks the reader right into it. One of the endorsements warns readers to clear their schedule before cracking open its cover and it is a good warning! I love Gay’s writing style and the way she manages to balance the brutality with moments of sheer beauty. And her unique phrasing - like “fighting with all the muscle in my heart” just adds to the strength of the book as a whole. The characters quickly come to life and the Haitian setting is certainly eye-opening and feels genuine. I love the styling of the book as well - using hash marks/tallies as the chapter markers fits so well with the overall plot.

The emotional level runs high throughout the novel and the novel flows well. Mirielle’s perspective is obviously the strongest, and the chapters outside of her point of view sometimes switch perspectives abruptly. But, the additional insights into the characters are welcome in painting the larger picture. The novel - like the main characters’ lives - is cleaved in two parts. The first part - with the horror of the kidnapping seems like it will be the more difficult part to read, but it is the aftermath that really rings with authenticity which makes it the stronger (and yet more difficult) half. It is an amazing debut novel but because of the emotional impact, it is not a book that I would blanketly recommend to everyone - sections are hard to read and though Miri’s strength is inspiring, her perspective is so pervasive that this is one of the more emotionally complex books that I have read in a long time. I am greatly looking forward to Gay’s second novel. Wow.

During a visit to Haiti, the country of her parent’s birth, Mireille Jameson, her husband Michael, and young son Christophe, are just emerging from the gates of her parent’s estate, on their way to the beach for the day, when armed men surround them and take Mireille away. The kidnappers want a cool million dollars to return Mireille to her family. Should be easy, right? After all, her father, has made a fortune in construction, not only in the States, but in Haiti. Mireille tells herself that this will all be over soon and she will be back home. Her father, however, refuses to pay the ransom, triggering outrage from Michael and incredulity in Mireille that her father will not pay to get her out of the hell that she’s been thrust into. Mireille narrates most of the story, with asides from Michael’s point of view, and she makes it clear in the beginning that she’s held for 13 days. Doesn’t seem like very long, does it? Not to us, not to someone that’s never been held captive. However, to Mireille, it’s an eternity, and what happens to her at the hands of the men that hold her captive is unspeakable. Her father’s refusal to pay the ransom is infuriating and shocking. What father wouldn’t save his daughter if he had the means? Although he does have his “reasons”, which become clearer in the last half of the book, it does nothing to excuse him.

While An Untamed State reads, at times, like a thriller, it’s much more than that. Mireille’s narrative takes us from her ordeal to her childhood visits to Haiti with her family, discovering a country both beautiful and wild, and back to when she first met Michael and their unlikely, yet strangely charming courtship. Mireille’s intense love for Michael and Christophe is part of what drives her will to survive, while at the same time, she begins to emotionally deaden herself in order to endure the transgressions being committed against her physical body. Her descent into madness is near complete at the end of the 13 days, and her ordeal does not end when her tormentors release her. In fact, the second half of the novel is Mireille’s attempt to claw her way out of the dark and remember who she is, even if she can never go back to being who she was.

An Untamed State is a phenomenal novel, and while it is certainly Mireille’s story, it doesn’t ignore Michael’s struggle as he comes to terms with Mireille’s ordeal and tries to find his way back into a heart that has been so critically damaged. There is not a quick and happy ending here, but there is hope, and to find hope after such a harrowing and terrifying struggle, is a precious thing indeed. This was not an easy read at times, but it’s an important one.

Wow.

There are so many thoughts flying through my mind after reading this story that I can hardly type fast enough to capture the emotions and thoughts that ran through me while reading and after reading this story.

First off, this book questions the life of a woman and what she endures on so many levels through the relationships with those around her. What she must always keep to herself and the ability of a woman to lock parts of herself away in such a way to protect herself and those around her. A burden. Something natural, something no one speaks of or even cares to acknowledge.

On a social level, Gay truly explores the class structure in Haiti and magnifies the fact that no one is above certain parts of life- no matter where we come from, we are all people and feel certain pains, we are all very similar in our most basic form. Having parents from a similar country has now opened my eyes to something that I never understood from them...a fear of their own country which they will not visit, a tropical beautiful place. This book has unlocked 33 years of wonder for me.

She also leans heavily on what it really means for the human spirit to be broken - I've never read an author who describes this as articulately as she does. She makes you feel the pains...though you know you cannot fully feel it. She makes you feel the emotions, but you know you can't even scrape the surface of the main character. This alone allows to you to understand the madness that engulfs her life.

The book is graphic and it forces you to get angry and be sad, to fear and to be captivated. It's astonishing. A true depiction of human life and how the body, mind and soul make up a person but can be so easily torn apart from each other. A live person can be nothing, even if they are physically part of the world.

Gay also touches on the different families involved in the book and who really steps up to the plate...it's not always who the reader will think provides the most comfort. Again, human nature comes out...the true face in the worst scenarios. Each character evokes some strong emotion or thought, each one has a distinct purpose.

I am breathless from this book. I cannot recommend to all because it's graphic nature is worse than any thriller or true crime story I've read - this is real. This is a true voice about something that really does exist in this world...a way that people live. It frightens me more than scary stories.

This book is the human heart laid out for all to see - each emotion, each pump of blood, each vein just forcing...I kept thinking of this human heart when reading: it's fragile and soft, yet it's the most important part of the body and pumps life with such force constantly, really a strong muscle that is hidden so deep...never stopping and only depending on ribs around it for protection. Reminds me of the main character she was the heart, she kept the bodies around her going even when she was the victim.

I apologize if this review is a bit broken and doesn't flow so well...i'm just shocked and still thinking about this book and all that I saw. The level of writing is intelligent yet extremely simple. Amazing so personal to me as a daughter, as a woman, and also incredibly informative on a wide scale. Worldly novel.

This is one of the most compelling books I have read in a long time, and definitely in the past year. The first half of the book details Mireille's 13 days in captivity and the second half describes her difficult recovery process to become whole and to be able to exist within her family again. It also describes how her family interacted with her during this critical period. In the first half, details about her captivity alternate with vignettes from her past - meeting her husband, becoming a mother, etc. - so that in these scenes we get to know her and her family and all of this becomes relevant once we get to the latter half of the book.

The story is one of suspense, but it is more than just that. It is about Haiti; immigrants who leave, who make it in the world, who come back; survival; the strength and will it takes to fight for one's family; betrayal; women; power...

What made the story compelling for me was Mireille's voice. Most of the book is told in the first person (a few chapters are written in the third person) and her voice is intimate and powerful. Every character, every scene, is vivid without any real effort on the reader's part. I was pulled in from the opening pages (when her car is surrounded by the kidnappers) and I felt immediately close to her. It was hard to put this book down.

I first learned about An Untamed State through a blog book review, and I was nervous about picking it up because of the violent nature of the story. I chose to read it anyway. Make no mistake that it is a difficult read, and after each of the first two violent scenes I was so emotional that I had to put the book down for the night. I felt that way at several points, though subsequently not because of the violence. I read the second half of the book - the aftermath of her experience - on and off with tears in my eyes. The violent scenes were done skillfully, in my opinion - enough for the story to make an impact, but not so much that it felt gratuitous. Gay described the violence but not with undue details. She did not employ blow-by-blow descriptions of what was done to her as much as she described Mireille's struggles with each attack and violation.

I am very grateful I found this book and I am planning to read Roxane Gay's other works.

First, let me note that this book could very well be a trigger for women who have experienced sexual assault. If you are at all sensitive to such things, then I would recommend maybe checking into it further (library?) before purchasing.

Miri is a daughter of Haiti - her parents are from there, though they got the start in the United States. They met there, and lived there for years, saving money to move back. Summers were spent in Haiti with family. Eventually, Miri's parents moved back while Miri stayed in the US, marrying an American. On a trip back to visit her (now very wealthy) parents, Miri is kidnapped. In Haiti, this is very common - people are kidnapped every day, and there are professional negotiators to help talk down the fee, then the kidnapped is returned unharmed. Except this time, Miri's father refuses to pay the ransom. As Miri is trapped, the reader learns about her childhood, her courtship, and her family - all while experiencing through Miri's eyes her continual need to survive.

Rarely do I read something so horrifying, yet so hauntingly beautiful. This could be a "ripped from the headlines", except that long after the news reporters would have moved onto something else, this story covers the aftermath in all its painful reality. The writing is gorgeous, which seems strange to say about a topic so brutal. The violence within the story is NEVER gratuitous, it just...is what it is. Honestly, the hardest part to read is the aftermath - the exploration of what one does to survive such a thing, and if it's possible to ever truly recover.

It's a sensitive subject, and Roxane Gay handles it beautifully. It's a hard subject to read about, but in her exploration of Haiti's people and culture, it becomes clear that this same problem (the haves vs. the have-nots) exists in so many other places and is often the root of many similar problems. A timely book, and a beautiful one.

It was impossible to put down although I wanted to. Reading the details of the abuse this woman went through was horrifying. Yet it was her strength and the weakness of those around her that truly broke my heart. The things women have to endure due to the entitlement of men is almost to painful to bear.

I really enjoyed the intensity of this book! I found myself yelling at the main character and emotionally involved. Like the crazy person in the movie theater that warns the person on the screen " He's behind you... Run" as if they can hear you Haha! But that's the passion the book brings out in anyone who reads this.

This is a Binge Book so it will be a great read for someone who never wants a dull moment! It will be tough to put down.

Roxane Roxane... You're just a mastermind of story telling & your books are dope!

Mireille Jameson is the young, beautiful, privileged daughter of Sebastian Duval, a self-made Haitian proud of his heritage and accomplishments. When Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight, in front of a street full of uncaring witnesses, her perceptions of life are thrust under a brutally sharp light, as she tries to cope with the fact she has no true understanding of the world she calls home.

AN UNTAMED STATE is an unflinching, brutally honest portrayal of wealth and politics, of the consequences of whistling past the graveyard. Gay's prose is as beautiful as it is harsh; at times, STATE is hard to read (for all the right reasons). It's a book of "issues," true, and takes itself a bit too seriously in spots, and comes with more than a few plot holes (Mireille can name dozens of people she knows who've been kidnapped, but never thinks about having security?). And yet, it's easy to get past these few small flaws, thanks to the prose and the novel's pace. It's a difficult read at times, but is almost always worth it.

This book wasn't what I was expecting. I kept waiting for the character to get justice or revenge on her kidnappers but obviously the author was going for a more realistic feel. This book is about a professional, upper class woman who gets kidnapped and gang raped A LOT by her captors when she's visiting her family in Haiti. During this time there are a lot of flashbacks about her life as a child and her relationship with her husband, which is supposed to be sweet but I found to be a bit disturbing. Then you can see how her relationships with her husband, parents, and in-laws change pre and post kidnapping. I guess overall I found this book to be disturbing. Clearly, the gang rapes were disturbing but I also found many of her relationships to be disturbing as well. I felt like by the end of the book the character was just "existing" because she never got justice and she still had many emotional scars and damage left afterwards. Summary of the book: a woman who's live went from amazing to tragic to tolerable. "Tolerable" doesn't make much for an ending in my opinion, so I was disappointed by that. Even though the kidnapping was difficult to read, that's what made this book a page turner and it's the reason I gave it four stars.

Expertly written with prose that read like a fast-paced first person crime novel. This story has no fluff at all and takes the reader on a trip from America to Haiti. A young family is visiting relatives when the young mother is kidnapped front of her husband and young son. Her father, a rich construction businessman refuses to pay ransom and she is forced into a nightmare world of unbelievable brutally. She's beaten, raped and burned by a group of men who keep her against her will. Her ability to fight back against overwhelming odds and defy her captors is truly heroic. I couldn't help but cringe at the physical and psychological damage Mireille faces throughout this story. Touching and emotionally real, I found myself drawn in and rooting for Mireille to be released or escape. A gripping page-turner, I couldn't put down.

This was a book that although beautifully written, was incredibly difficult for me to read. Set in Haiti, Mireille Duval Jameson is born into wealth and privilege. Born into one of Haiti's wealthiest families, Mireille has gone on to create her own idyllic family life in her husband and newborn son. But in Haiti--known for its poverty--people of such wealth are often targeted....and such is the case with Mireille. Snatched by armed kidnappers from in front of her father's home and held for ransom, Mireille realizes that her nightmare is only just beginning, as her father is unwilling to meet the demands of her kidnappers......

An Untamed State portrays the Haiti that the rest of the Western world sees often in the news; that of violence, lawlessness and pervasive corruption; couple with the spirit and resilience of a woman at the center of it all. Sad, and very often violent, this is one that I found both impossible to put down and that I loathed to pick up.

DYB

DYB

I read this book in two sittings, I just devoured it. It blew my mind. Then later I started thinking about Mireille and parts of the story and I thought maybe I didn't love it, maybe I didn't like it at all. Then I thought "Are you crazy, that book was amazing!". It has been awhile since I read a book that stays with me and makes me think. I finally gave my copy to a friend to read so I could get it out of the house. I was afraid I would have to go to couples counseling with it.
Mireille, her husband, Michael, and their baby, Christophe are in Haiti visiting her parents who moved back to Haiti from America after her father retired. He now owns a construction business in Haiti and is very wealthy. Miri grew up privileged and though she was born in America, she has strong connections to Haiti as her family would spend summers there with family every year. In Haiti, kidnappings are fairly common and rather routine. A person is taken. The family brings in a negotiator, a price is agreed on, ransom paid and the person returns home unharmed. Miri is familiar with this. It has happened to relatives and friends. Miri also knows that her father has always stated he would never negotiate and pay a ransom. So when Miri, Michael, and Christophe set off for the beach and Miri is taken, I was really pissed at her. Really pissed. She is taken to a house and left in a room and at one point she is thinking about how all she wanted to do was take a nice vacation with her husband and baby and wear her new bikini to the beach. Then I started to hate her. Who expects to have a lovely, fancy vacation in such a poverty stricken country? I had many descriptive words for her. The story then takes us back to Miri's childhood and to her meeting Michael, so different from her, a white male from Nebraska. We are kept up to date with what is happening with Miri currently as a hostage and then it reaches the point where I can't hate her. The first half of the book is Miri before and while she was kidnapped, the second half is the after.
Miri is a complicated character, rather unlikeable at times. But that is okay with me, I like complexity. A character doesn't have to be likeable to me, but they do have to be interesting And Miri is that. So is her family, so is Michael's family, especially his mother, who has an important role in Miri's life.
Despite my many different thoughts on this book, I can't give it less than 5 stars. It was a serious, complex novel. Gay is not afraid to hide anything and is willing to go deep. She has a non-fiction book coming out in August that I look forward to reading, but I really hope she plans to still write fiction. The literary world needs more authors like her.

This was a book that although beautifully written, was incredibly difficult for me to read. Set in Haiti, Mireille Duval Jameson is born into wealth and privilege. Born into one of Haiti's wealthiest families, Mireille has gone on to create her own idyllic family life in her husband and newborn son. But in Haiti--known for its poverty--people of such wealth are often targeted....and such is the case with Mireille. Snatched by armed kidnappers from in front of her father's home and held for ransom, Mireille realizes that her nightmare is only just beginning, as her father is unwilling to meet the demands of her kidnappers......

An Untamed State portrays the Haiti that the rest of the Western world sees often in the news; that of violence, lawlessness and pervasive corruption; couple with the spirit and resilience of a woman at the center of it all. Sad, and very often violent, this is one that I found both impossible to put down and that I loathed to pick up.

DYB

DYB

I realize the nature of the tale was PTSD-like madness, but the main character's long-term reaction just seemed over the top at times. Repetitive. I'm sure if that really happened to someone the repetitive internal dialogue, etc., might occur in that person's head, but it just doesn't work for storytelling. It makes you want to skip ahead because you've heard that exact thing too many times before. I finished the book only because I'm not a fan of leaving things unfinished.

I read this book in two sittings, I just devoured it. It blew my mind. Then later I started thinking about Mireille and parts of the story and I thought maybe I didn't love it, maybe I didn't like it at all. Then I thought "Are you crazy, that book was amazing!". It has been awhile since I read a book that stays with me and makes me think. I finally gave my copy to a friend to read so I could get it out of the house. I was afraid I would have to go to couples counseling with it.
Mireille, her husband, Michael, and their baby, Christophe are in Haiti visiting her parents who moved back to Haiti from America after her father retired. He now owns a construction business in Haiti and is very wealthy. Miri grew up privileged and though she was born in America, she has strong connections to Haiti as her family would spend summers there with family every year. In Haiti, kidnappings are fairly common and rather routine. A person is taken. The family brings in a negotiator, a price is agreed on, ransom paid and the person returns home unharmed. Miri is familiar with this. It has happened to relatives and friends. Miri also knows that her father has always stated he would never negotiate and pay a ransom. So when Miri, Michael, and Christophe set off for the beach and Miri is taken, I was really pissed at her. Really pissed. She is taken to a house and left in a room and at one point she is thinking about how all she wanted to do was take a nice vacation with her husband and baby and wear her new bikini to the beach. Then I started to hate her. Who expects to have a lovely, fancy vacation in such a poverty stricken country? I had many descriptive words for her. The story then takes us back to Miri's childhood and to her meeting Michael, so different from her, a white male from Nebraska. We are kept up to date with what is happening with Miri currently as a hostage and then it reaches the point where I can't hate her. The first half of the book is Miri before and while she was kidnapped, the second half is the after.
Miri is a complicated character, rather unlikeable at times. But that is okay with me, I like complexity. A character doesn't have to be likeable to me, but they do have to be interesting And Miri is that. So is her family, so is Michael's family, especially his mother, who has an important role in Miri's life.
Despite my many different thoughts on this book, I can't give it less than 5 stars. It was a serious, complex novel. Gay is not afraid to hide anything and is willing to go deep. She has a non-fiction book coming out in August that I look forward to reading, but I really hope she plans to still write fiction. The literary world needs more authors like her.

Often fiction gives us a better perspective on the human state than nonfiction, as fiction affords the opportunity to expand on reality that, of course, nonfiction does not. The subject of post traumatic stress is an important one today, for reasons I need not state here. I hoped this novel would enlighten me on the subject. Instead, I became increasingly nervous the further into the novel I read, and this state when reading is a sign that I do not enjoy what I am reading. I felt the novel was filled with characters who were little more than cliches, locations that were certainly cliches, and a plot line that could have been significant, but was--instead--melodramatic and trite. So who would like this novel? My answer is if you thought THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY was a really good book, you'll like "An Untamed State."

Being kidnapped for a ransom can be a terrifying experience. You might think that's obvious, but you probably have no real idea of just how bad it can be...

Mireille, a lawyer and daughter of a wealthy Haitian businessman, is kidnapped in Port au Prince by a group of armed men, wrenched away from her American husband and their young child, and held captive until a ransom of $1 million is paid. As you can imagine, the experience is deeply traumatic for Mireille, but no... you can't really imagine just how traumatic. Roxane Gay can, but there's no way of making it easy for the reader.

An Untamed State is a book of two parts. The first part deals with the kidnapping, the second part with the aftermath. Without getting into boring structural analysis, the manner in which the author divides perspective is relevant to how the book achieves its impact so powerfully. At the beginning it feels like the author is going straight for the kill, taking the reader into the more thrilling kidnap drama action. Oh, if only. By the time you get past Mireille's first day in captivity, you're longing for release yourself in the backstory of her romance and relationship with Michael - but even that is not plain sailing. The divisions go deeper than this however, into male and female, husband and wife, rich and poor, person/non-person, life in USA and life in Haiti - two diametrically opposed views of life with differing values.

Mainly however, the division is within Mireille, who is unable to reconcile who she was before with the person she is now. It goes without saying then that Mireille's experience in captivity is deeply traumatic, and quite honestly, you're spared none of the details. It's not easy reading, but it's necessary to understand how deeply such an experience can strike to the core of a person's identity and to realise how fundamentally important that can be. It also shows, without becoming too much of a post-trauma case study, the strength of an untamed human spirit to endure, and the depths of compassion that can also be found in others.

The reason that this book is quite so compelling despite the horror of its contents, is undoubtedly a testament to the ability of the author and the quality of her writing. Her descriptions of what happens might be almost unendurable, but they feel authentic. As such you can trust her not to hold back from all the other implications that the situation has for Mireille and her family. In a book of sharp contrasts, you would hope that there is some compensation for what you are put through, and - without betraying the work with any suggestion that there could be any happy ending - there is a corresponding pay-off in just how affecting An Untamed Spirit is. As difficult as it is to read, it's hard to imagine any reader not being able to see this through and not being deeply moved by the content.

(Original review appears in Pantheon Magazine at http://pantheonmag.com/an-untamed-state-roxane-gay/)

One of the limits reached by Mireille Duval Jameson, Roxane Gay’s obstinate lead character in her debut novel, An Untamed State, is the harsh realization of how a father can chose principle over blood when his daughter’s very life is within his power to promptly rescue. It is a trauma nearly as rending to her heart as the one done to her body.

While visiting her parents in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Mireille, a lawyer living in Miami with her husband, Michael, and infant son, Christophe, are jumped at gunpoint at the base of the driveway of her father’s gated mansion. In broad daylight before a gaggle of impotent neighbor-witnesses, Mireille is stuffed into an SUV and whisked away.

In a certain, admittedly cynical sense, this has become business as usual in Haiti, which according to our narrator, has surpassed Columbia as the kidnap capital of the world. Soon after her abduction, while locked inside a tiny room in some anonymous tenement building, Mireille runs down the list of the people she’s known who’ve also been abducted—close associates and even remote family members—and of how they’ve been returned unhurt soon after the ransoms have been paid. This is as much to ponder away the time and afford herself some positive reinforcement as it is a nascent survival mechanism kicking.

Depersonalization and disassociation permeate this book. From her father’s unwavering ideology of non-negotiation, to Mireille’s ever-increasing disunity between individuality and a wholesale organic anonymity, survival and sanity hinges on the tenuous switchboarding our minds are capable of under the most trying of situations. However, whereas her father’s principals are merely put to the test, Mireille must literally reprogram her entire life’s outlook in order to survive, starting with the realization that all of her choices now are predicated solely on the whims of men, beginning with Sebastien Duval.

"It wasn’t until I was taken from my husband and child that I realized we were all going to pay the price for my father’s dreams."

That she’s unaware of her husband, Michael’s, impotence to do much either during the abduction (understandable, given the weaponry involved) or the negotiations, allows her the initial permissibility to embark upon a process of regression and basal recalibration so thorough that one wonders if simple autonomy can ever be acquired again.

"The body holds a certain wisdom the mind does not, she ponders early in her detention."

It is a refrain her mind will repeat in various permutations throughout, especially following the horrific gang-rape she suffers after her father has yet again refused to meet her abductor’s one-million-dollar ransom. That Gay utilizes an almost clinically detached tone to convey it—stripping it of all subtlety and emotion in a parallel to Mireille’s own mental process—renders the scene nearly impossible to endure. Such detached style is reflected in all the female characters. This is not a criticism, but a stylistic choice. Not only is overt emotion implicitly suppressed by tacit-to-blatant male pressures, but strength is reinforced through a matter-of-fact processing and defense of motive and action. Mireille’s mother, Fabienne, is cool and assertive in her resolve to stand by her prideful husband’s decisions (until she no longer can during an awkwardly grueling scene where she dresses him down in a room full of friends and family), because this is what the wife of a wealthy man in a nation riddled by poverty is expected to do. Mireille’s own stubbornness in caring for her equally recalcitrant mother-in-law, Lorraine, during her fight with cancer is handled with the reserved, steady pressure that foretells of Lorraine’s inevitable yielding, yet without compromising her dignity.

As powerful an exploration of the depths of feminine perseverance as An Untamed State is, it’s equally as astute about the motives that govern men’s actions. The Commander, the leader of the kidnapping group, justifies his rampant sadism by citing Mireille’s assumed Americanization, specifically of how it has blinded her to her native people’s squalor. TiPierre, one of the Commander’s minions, presumes a decency for forfeiting his share of the ransom to his cohorts so they would no longer assault her, solely so he could have her for himself. Both men are equal practitioners of cognitive dissonance, each capable of the most monstrous of acts while holding steady to righteous ideals of familial responsibility.

"Men are strangely moved to preserve their bloodlines," the Commander says of Mireille’s father’s unavoidable capitulation, at least in his mind. TiPierre goes one further by expressing sincere concerns for his son’s future while in bed with Mireille following another rape.

But it’s the two men closest to her that perhaps wound her the most. Her father’s reluctance to compromise his principals all but obliterates her trust in family. As for her husband, Michael, it’s not his inaction that weakens him so much as how bereft he is of his own philosophical system. He’s admittedly been raised in the ideal family situation, replete with love and opportunity, and while his feelings of helplessness are completely understandable, his inability (or disinclination) to wrest the mantle of strength in a situation where clearly the wrong people have control over it fills Mireille with conflicted feelings about his place in her world. That Michael reveals his most childish, self-centered nature after Mireille’s release makes matters worse, teetering at times on the verge of directly blaming his wife for his own inability to find closure. This later provokes his normally soft-spoken father, Glen, to offer the observation regarding his son’s involvement during his mother’s cancer fight: “It makes me sick to say this but thank God we didn’t have to depend on you. Everything would have fallen apart.”

Structurally, An Untamed State is written in two halves, the abduction and her return, each of which alternates between current events of the abduction, confinement, abuse, and with elements of her past life including her parental history, her meeting and courtship with Michael, and her pregnancy—all of which she refers to as the Before. Prison-wall hash-marks are used as chapter headings in lieu of numbers, echoing her prevailing sense of confinement, especially in the latter portion of the book after she has returned home.

If the prevailing theme of the first half is objectification of body and soul, then forgiveness—or rather, it’s dubious possibility given the extreme nature of all offending parties—rules the second half. Given a horrible enough violation, is forgiveness even possible? The question lingers like rot throughout the book; not just Mireille’s forgiveness of her abductors/rapists, but of her father’s violation of trust, and her husband’s selfish coping.

Ultimately, it is Mireille’s journey that struggles at the heart of An Untamed State. It is through her eyes and body that we experience the world. And though she’s the chief protagonist, Gay is very careful not to render her as a hero in the classic sense. Yes, she is strong and willful to be sure, especially early on after she’s been taken. But her ultimate survival becomes less an issue of courage as it is an inborn, animalistic perseverance. A heretofore sense of adaptability the title itself refers to. Several times she asks for death from her tormentors, and when it doesn’t come, she makes the mental adjustments necessary for endurance. There is no moment of grand absolution when the novel’s final moments arrive—a present-day ending scene that is both surprising as it is inexorable given the plight of those in Haiti, followed by a final flashback moment of captivity as powerful as any in the book.

When all is said and done, whatever forgiveness bestowed is hard-won, bitter, grudging, allocated solely, it seems, because clemency itself is as necessary a tool for survival as is detachment.

This novel is the most harrowing reading experience I have ever had. I spent a good bit of my time reading through tears, and, at a point about two-thirds of the way through the novel, I had to set it aside and switch to lighter reading for a few days. Like the female protagonist, I have an infant son who is still breastfeeding, and I believe that coincidence is one reason why this novel affected me so much. If you are in a similar position (or have a close friend or relative who is), then this book is likely to be even more affecting for you. Never have I been more happy and grateful to be woken up multiple times during the night by a crying baby as I was while reading this book. This book will make you grateful for your family and comfortable life, and it will make you think and worry about those who do not have similar gifts.

This is an unforgettable book. I loved Roxane Gay's writing in Ayiti, and here she is even stronger. Once I started reading, I couldn't put it down.

Mireille, the main character, is powerful and compelling, even when she is most broken. I've never read a character like this, and Gay draws her with such mercy and precision, that Mireille leaps out of the pages and runs across the room. She's one of those characters you don't forget. Ever.

I can't say enough to praise this book, the storyline, the characters, the writing. Phenomenal.

This is a fast paced novel that grabs the reader from the very beginning. We experience what Merielle, the main character, experiences through her suffering as a kidnap victim and through her recovery. Soap-operish at times, it still packs a wallop. The author, Roxane Gay, can easily be forgiven for some melodramatic moments. The book isn't perfect, but there's not much to be severely critical about. It's a strong book that you're bound to remember.

This is a compelling novel, but do be aware that if violence against women and sexual violence are triggering this isn't a book for you.

The story line covers a kidnapping and hostage negotiations of a young woman in Haiti. The focus here is on character development and the story itself, so those are not spoilers. Gay does excellent work here in covering the various levels of trauma (individual, cultural, national, of immigrant experience, and so on).

I love Roxane Gay and her essays, Tumblr posts, tweets--and so it surprised me to find this book wanting. It was really just a race-to-the-finish stressfest. It had a quality that made it hard to put down, but it frequently read like syrupy fan fiction and the characterization was too thin to carry the weight of the plot. I just ordered Bad Feminist and can't wait to read it, just wish I had been able to put this book down rather than finish it and feel so tapped.

An Untamed State is both the story of a kidnapping and a dissection of a life before, during and after the abduction. Roxane Gay's book can be difficult to read -- not because of the writing, which is good, but because of the harrowing events she depicts.

Mirielle Duval Jameson has a good life. The daughter of wealthy Haitian parents, she lives in Miami with her American husband and their young son. On a visit to her parents in Port-au-Prince, she is kidnapped and held for ransom. Much of the book is an interior monologue by Mirielle on her life. It jumps back and forth from the present, where she is in captivity; the past, where she was raised and met her husband; and the time after the kidnapping, when she tries to convince herself that she is whole despite what she has suffered.

This is a tautly written book that races the reader along from page to page, but it has plenty of depth. There is discussion of Mirielle's privileged existence and how that is blown apart by the kidnapping. When she is first taken, she expects the ordeal to last a few days at most. But then her father refuses to pay the $1 million ransom, and from there, the abuse escalates in ways that are predictable when you consider that she is being held by a group of young men.

I found this a fully-realized character study of a young woman bridging two cultures. Mirielle prides herself on her strength, but sometimes it works against her. Roxane Gay is a bold new voice in literature, and I look forward to her next novel.

Mirelle Duval Jameson is a lawyer living in the United States married with a son. she is originally from Haiti. While visiting her wealthy parents in Port-au-Prince, she is kidnapped by a gang and held for thirteen days. She suffers tremendous abuse by her captors and emerges a very different person. The second half of the book describes her recovery.
This debut novel is beautifully written and is a very compelling read. It is truly hard to put down. Characters are well rounded and have great depth. The problem I had were some improbable coincidences that occur, as well as, the psychological recovery going on way too long. It should have been cut by at least 50 pages. Nonetheless, it is a solid debut and a superb psychological suspense novel.

First time reading this author's work. I'm glad I did. This book was remarkably complex yet intriguing. The main characters were complicated, sometimes unnecessarily difficult but interesting. This was a tragic story of kidnapping for ransom and amazing love story of patience and healing. Some chapters leaves you emotional. Each chapter leaves you wanting more. Great read. I'd recommend this book.

This book was recommended by a friend so I grabbed it at the library. It was RAW. I was pulled in right from the beginning. I can not believe Sebastien would leave his daughter to be tortured and broken. I cried. I can not believe Michael didn't shoot TiPierre when he had the opportunity, I was rooting for street justice. I related to Mirielle's strength and tenacity, her feisty character and being so difficult to love. This story was dark, ugly, suspenseful, riveting, and left me all in my feelings.

This book delved deep into horror and dislocation of self and family. Scenes from Mirielle's life give depth to the dynamics of her journey through a torturous hell from which she is cast, a terrorized shadow.
I was moved by Miri's emotions as she survived and found herself, changed but not destroyed.
This story asks many questions of what family is, what is moral, and what is truth. A very satisfying read

Roxanne Gray's "An Untamed State" refers both to Haiti, the setting of about half of this novel, and the heroine, a lawyer named Mireille who is kidnapped, tortured and raped in Haiti because of her father's wealth. The novel reveals on the first page that she survives the ordeal, for this novel is not about suspense. Rather, the author probes how a strong, independent Haitian-American woman with a career, husband and child finds herself at the mercy of "The Commander" and his cohorts, and how she must recover from the ordeal.

The novel delves deeply into Mireille'scharacter -- we see her youth in Haiti and Nebraska, her relationship with her siblings, her domineering, demanding self-made father and the student who woos her. Gay skilfully interweaves the backstory into the present, when she is held captive, and the future, when she begins her recovery on her in-laws' farm. She also probes the enormous disparity between the wealthy few and the masses in Haiti, but what's more important is how this disparity feeds into the incredible brutality of the kidnappers toward Mireille and other women. The novel alternates between Mireille's first-person account and a third-person account of her husband, who is also a victim and who finds himself unable to cope with his wife's trauma.

The brutality in parts of this novel are difficult if not impossible to read. Are these passages necessary? Probably. But what's more important is Mireille's passion for life, how it nearly gets snuffed out entirely and how her spirit brings her back far enough to resume some kind of life, though much different. The prose style is terse and incisive, even in passages that look back nostalgically at the life of a family out of place in the United States but at the pinnacle of society in Haiti. The violence makes this book sometimes difficult to read, but Mireille's character makes the book difficult to put down as well.

The writing. The story. The suspense. Even though you learn early on that Mirielle was held for 13 days, you have no idea how long, lonely and terrifying they were. Leaves you wondering who or what is untamed... Mirielle? The Commander? Haiti? Mankind?

Wow. Wow. Wow. Not an easy read in that it will tear your guts out and show them to you, but the last time I read a book that was both harrowing and a page turner was in reading J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace. Both of these books made me want to look away while at the same time forcing me to look. Both of them will never leave me.

Many reviewers and endorsers of the book have already said it doesn't let go and I would agree with them wholeheartedly. I will be thinking of this book for a long time. I will also be thinking of its protagonist, Miri--her strength, her brokenness, her will to survive and "Hold steady. Stay strong."

I probably would have given this book five stars if I had not read the non-fiction book "A House In the Sky" by Amanda Lindhout. The parallels between Amanda's real life kidnapping, torture, repeated rapes and the physical and mental abuse sustained is clearly captured in Roxane Gay's character, Mirielle Duval Jameson who is kidnapped in Haiti while she and her husband, Michael, and their son, Christophe, are visiting Mirielle's parents, Sebastian and Fabienne Duval. Mirielle is held prisoner for thirteen days because her father refuses to pay the ransom to thugs who hadn't worked in life to earn the sums of money being demanded.
Mirielle is subjected to severe torture by the seven men who kidnapped her. The worst is the Commander, Laurent Charles, the head of the operation and TiPierre, who buys his rights to Mirielle from the other men with the exception of the Commander. Gay captures the torture and feelings of entrapment and it is very difficult to read. My shock of the captivity however was first caught in Lindhout's story.
Mirielle is ultimately released after her father and husband secure the large ransom. The story then shifts to Murielle's assimilation back I to her life, her marriage, her family, and society. She is very broken and suffers PTSD. For me, this is the portion of the story that captivated my interest as it was an area Lindhout did not delve into with her own recovery and healing. How do you ever go back because everything you knew before is shattered and demarcated by the event, life before and life after. The fear, the terror, the nightmares, the lack of trust, the psychological manipulation, to cringe at the touch of anyone, to ever open your heart and sexuality to a man again was horrifying to read.

"An Untamed State" by Roxane Gay is a powerful story filled with brutality, terror, and horror. The story swings back and forth between the present time and a happier past. It brings to mind the value of women that men hold. At once we are valuable and disposable.

It's not an easy read. Not that it's difficult to grasp the writing but the sheer brutality of the story is presented in such a stark, raw way. Gay's ability to craft such a powerful story is to be praised. It's a story that reaches inside your soul and throws punches at its primal essence. It's messages strong. This is a story I will never forget.

I have enjoyed Roxanne Gay's writing for some time and was eager to read her first novel. Her storytelling and characterizations do not disappoint. Mireille makes for a strong, sympathetic protagonist and the story flows well. Gay's writing is also technically wonderful, refreshing compared to other Vine books I've received.

The only criticism I had is a matter of taste. Writers are often told to "begin with action" and Gay does. However, as someone completely unfamiliar with Haiti, I felt I needed some context to understand what was happening before or as the kidnapping happened (the pace of the scene is extraordinary). I appreciate why the novel begins this way: the reader is as disoriented as Mireille. As the book goes along, we settle in and get a true sense of how the setting, which is as essential to the story as a character. I'd go so far as to say that Haiti *is* a character in this book, affecting everything and everyone (kind of like the absent Rebecca deWinter in the DuMarier novel). If you can hang in there through the unsettling opening and allow yourself to go with Mireille on her journey, you'll have a rewarding reading experience about class, race, sex and much more.

I could not put this book down. The events that the main character endures are awful and at times hard to read (warning to people who are sensitive to topics of rape and kidnapping!) If you can handle these topics, then this book is a must read. The chapters jump around from the Mireille's point of view (who was kidnapped) and her husband/families. I especially loved that there were chapters dedicated to the development of Mireille and Michael (her husband) relationship. This book will break your heart, shock you, and give you hope all at once.

I also found it to be a quick and easy read. Roxane Gay writes in a fluid and easy way.

An Untamed State is raw, real, and suspenseful. I could not put it down. Roxanne Gay has a way of building up the suspense and emotion that keeps the reader glued to the book. Gay is very vivid and realistic in describing the emotional and physical trauma that one would go through during 13 days of captivity and the long journey to recovery by Mirielle, her husband, and the rest of her family. By the end, I wanted revenge and justice and vindication. I didn't get that, however, I did get the realistic feel of a family in recovery from a tragic event. This novel did not disappoint.

Framed by a Haitian kidnapping story, Gay's novel is a grim, authentic portrait of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Mireille Jameson is a lawyer, wife, and mother, born to wealthy Haitian parents, Sebastien and Fabienne Duval, raised in both America and Haiti. Once he stockpiled his wealth, Sebastian, a successful contractor, returned to Port-Au-Prince from America with Mireille's mother. As the story opens, Mereille is visiting her parents from Miami with her Caucasian, Nebraskan-bred husband, Michael, and their baby, Christophe.

The beginning portrays the kidnapping; the reader is thrust immediately into propulsive action. Unfortunately, for me, the execution felt derivative, copied from the legion of TV shows and movies that reduce it to stock effect. However, as the story progresses, it is evident that the kidnapping was only a tool to reach deeper into Mireille's tragic circumstances, and open up the genuine feelings and conflicts that come with PTSD. The book is essentially one-half captivity, and the latter half the after-effects.

The prose was initially (for me) just serviceable, but this is another instance where it works just fine as the story develops. It gains more power as you learn the back story, also, which is revealed gradually. Gay is superb at mixing the past and the present without losing any momentum.

The thrust of the story is how Mireille and her family deal with her PTSD. This is something Gay narrates with subtlety and compassion. As a psychiatric nurse, I believe that I am well-equipped to distinguish credible symptoms of PTSD from boiler plate copying. There wasn't one false note in Gay's portrayal of Mireille and her family members. I was turning the pages with eager anticipation and suspense. Although UNTAMED STATE is not the first novel to deal with this issue, it is unquestionably a front-runner for veracity and candor. The events (kidnapping, hostage, release) are a bit heavy-handed, but the voice of Mireille is powerfully authentic.

A story so vivedly told that I the reader had to check if it was in fact a work of fiction. Having grown up in the Caribbean and personally aware of the crass wealth and opportunity differences between rich and poor particularly in Haiti, this tale relates a true and possible scenario of what can happen particularly where the police are completely useless.

This book was about a woman who is kidnapped, with the first part of the book detailing her awful ordeal, and the second part of the book dealing with her attempts to recover from the experience. This book was definitely gruesome and disturbing at times, but it was incredibly written. It was emotional and absorbing and tense and scary and touching, and had a plot that was so different from anything I've read lately. If you can deal with the tense subject matter, I'd highly recommend it.

Some stories leave marks that won't fade. An Untamed State is one of them. A Haitian woman from a wealthy family, Mireille is kidnapped and held for thirteen days while her father refuses to pay the million dollar ransom. By the time he relents, his daughter has been destroyed physically and psychologically. The novel contains some brutal and graphic scenes, which are necessary. Without them readers could not fully understand the changes in Mirielle. But it 's not the violence that makes this story unforgettable. It's Mireille's mental disintegration during her captivity and painful struggle to recover some part of herself afterward. She will never be the same. And neither will readers who share her journey..

You have to be brave to read this book: An Untamed State by Roxane Gay. It's a fictional account of a young woman kidnapped in Haiti while there visiting her wealthy parents. The brutality she suffers is difficult to read. The effects of her kidnapping on family dynamics between her husband, parents and mother-in-law are interesting. This book earns 4 out of 5 stars because the unbelievable ending weakens the entire story.

The Good: face-paced, page-turner, thorough and likeable characters. I wanted to continue reading each night. To say that I "enjoyed" it would not do service to the serious subject matter. The Bad: My beef with the book is that I didn't learn enough about Haiti. I think the author missed an opportunity to reveal more about the history and people of Haiti. The book is well-written, but my recommendation for others would come with the following caveat - compelling, but disturbing and ultimately lacking.

This was a serious page turner, but each page has more horror on it than the last. Not for the faint of heart, but undeniably powerful because of it. My wife had to stop reading because she said it was too much, which I think is a compliment of the author's bravery and unflinching portrayal of Mirielle's captivity. An indictment of the violence men do.

Only thing that kept it from 5-stars for me was some infelicities in the prose and that it could perhaps be 20-25 pages shorter/tighter. It's admirably unshowy, as it should be, but there's some lines that clang in the ear for lack of care and attention. Most of the book is so strong that those slight bobbles stand out all the more. Highly recommended for the right kind of reader.

First, the positive. Roxane Gray has a clear and forthright style. Parts of the narrative have a blazing fierce honesty. What this book needed was an editor to push her harder. This book is undisciplined and repetitive and some of the scenes are almost comically cliched, despite the serious subject matter. The scene where the mother confronts the father in a roomful of people -- I feel like I have seen that scene a dozen times in a dozen different movies. The love stories are cliched and somewhat immature. The book is supposed to be set in Haiti, but there is so little evocative description of the setting that one doesn't get a feel or a sense of the place. (Footnote: I've been there, and not to the resorts.) Gray seems to have the raw talent to be a great writer. But this books relies on the plot to propel readers through it's pages, and that's not enough for everyone.

It was impossible to put down although I wanted to. Reading the details of the abuse this woman went through was horrifying. Yet it was her strength and the weakness of those around her that truly broke my heart. The things women have to endure due to the entitlement of men is almost to painful to bear.

This book was suspenseful, scary and emotional and I enjoyed ever moment of my reading about Mireille and her experience as a kidnap victim and her struggles. She is a wealthy person faced with a very traumatic experience and frankly being let down b y someone close to her. I felt this was a well written account of a person in this situation and was thoroughly engaged throughout the entire book.

Mireille, is an American immigrant from Haiti. She is a practicing attorney, happily married and the mother
of a 1 year old son. She and her family go back to Haiti to visit her wealthy parents. Mireille is kidnapped
and held for 1 million dollar ransom. He father refuses to pay because he feels it will make his family
valuable. His daughter is held for 13 days and is starved and sexually abused by the gang holding her.
She is spiritually dead when the ransom is paid and she is then released. Much of the book is about her slow
recovery. The reader is made aware of the horrible poverty and terrible living conditions in Haiti.
Gay writes well, however, there is too much graphic sex to suit my taste, Sex, first as Moreille is a
happily married woman and then as the severely abused captive. There was certainly suspense, and there
is a real story, but I had the feeling I was reading a smutty novel.

This is a very graphic, very well written story. Yet, as difficult as it is to read, it is as impossible to stop reading it. I hate what happens to the main female character, I hate her father for what he doesn't do to help his daughter and feel her husband's frustration throughout the story. I have to think that any author that can make me have these intense feelings, is an incredibly talented writer.

This book is an adrenaline ride, I couldn't put it down. I've been a fan of Roxane Gay for a while--I've read her short stories, many of which have appeared online, and I was thrilled when North Country won Best American last year. Needless to say, I rushed to the bookstore when I heard she had a novel out. I read the book in three intense bursts, three sittings actually, because I just couldn't pull myself away from it. It's a devastating book, but one, I think, that's also essential.

This is a powerful, unforgettable, difficult novel. I suspect that some readers may decide not to read "An Untamed State" because the subject (a brutal kidnapping) is hard to read. But that would be a mistake. Gay's voice is so assured, and so compassionate, that even though the subject matter is grim, the novel is absolutely worthwhile. The kidnapping is not written in a sensational way. I think this must be the most honest depiction of this type of violence and its aftermath that I have ever encountered. Equally important to the story is the role of family, and how our families--our blood families and those we create ourselves--can support or destroy us.

Not easy to read because of the subject matter. Extremely vivid writing that brought characters to life, especially the inner turmoil of the main character. Not exactly a "fun" read, due to the graphic topic, still memorable with some thought-provoking nuances.

This book is so extraordinary, frenetic and stunning that it literally took my breath away more than a few times...but I could not put it down. The violent passages, although brutal and difficult to read, were necessary to the story's beauty and integrity. I guarantee that you won't read anything like AN UNTAMED STATE this year and, perhaps, not for a very long time

This is a scary book but good. Roxane really gets into the heart of what can happen to a young woman who has been kidnapped by thugs. If you're not looking for pretty graphic stuff, this isn't for you, but it's not gratuitous just realistic. Some people don't like real realism, so beware. Pretty intense. The only thing I didn't really like was the husband's mother, too gruff on the outside, heart of gold on the inside. She seemed more like a character created for a plot point than a real flesh and blood woman. I liked the book anyway.

What an extraordinary and unforgettable novel. A Haitian-born woman who is visiting her well-to-do family in Haiti is kidnapped and held for ransom. Thus begins Mireille's 13 day brutal cycle of rape and torture. The treatment by her captors and the breaking down of her spirit and body took my breath away.This is not for the faint hearted.

The title is forgettable, which is unfortunate because EVERYTHING else about this book is absolutely amazing. It is a truly riveting and moving story. One of the best books I've read in years. Loaded with emotion, both loving and painful. I highly recommend this book. It is a MUST read - especially for men. Truly an adventure to read. I couldn't put it down. And I can't get it out of my head weeks after finishing it. Shocking, yet educational in so many ways. Roxanne Gay is a rising star of an author.

As a Caribbean women this resonates deeply. Do not be misled by the beauty of the islands. They are hard and will break you. An excellent read, you will join the main character in her every experience and she is fierce and wonderful. As much a tale of marriage and love as of kidnapping.

It was so close to horrors broadcasted on media sites about Boko Haram(sp?)atrocities on children, especially, girls. It was chilling to the bone. And one was meandered by the author to seek the ending w/hope...

Gay’s debut novel is a fearless and mesmerizing tale of survival in the face of unspeakable evil and hope in its aftermath. While vacationing in Haiti with her family, Mirelle Duval Jameson is kidnapped and her wealthy father refuses to pay the million-dollar ransom. After her captivity, Mirelle has to figure out not only how to survive but how to live. Roxane Gay is a writer whose work shouldn’t be missed. -Natasha Vasillis, Bloggers Recommend

This is a powerful book about the kidnapping of a Haitian woman (in Haiti) from wealthy Haitian family. She is married to a middle class American man and they have a young son. The principle thrust of the novel revolves around captivity and abuse and ultimately the possibility of recovery and forgiveness once the ordeal is over. This book is gritty and troubling at many points but is very well written and I felt totally worthwhile when I finished it. A tough topic done with taste and sensitivity

I'm surprised that I liked this book. I usually shy away from any type of violence. But this book drew me in; I couldn't put it down. The characters are real and complex. It was very brutal in parts and I felt the tension in my body as I read. The end was not "sugar coated" and I felt it was in line with the characters as I saw them. Roxane is a talented writer. There are no spare words, no fluff, just compelling, captivating text!

An Untamed State is a scathing indictment of Haiti’s social and economic hierarchy. The story highlights the sheer hopelessness caused by unrelenting poverty. The story is sad and the vivid descriptions of rape and torture are difficult to read, but one that you should take the time to read.

There are times when this book is impossibly brutal. There are also times when it is beautiful. The most difficult times is where it is both. "An Untamed State" is not an easy book, though it is not hard to read. It's hard to stop. This book is powerful enough that it will leave you raw afterward.

I bought this book for a roadtrip with my family. I was so engrossed that they got angry. I cried, and my family laughed at me. Needless to say, you may want to read this one at home, alone. But definitely read it.

I felt that Gay, through her use of the main character Mirielle, repeatedly committed that fundamental literary sin: she told and did not show. Perhaps it was the use of the first person, but I experienced Mirielle as flat, lacking nuance and ultimately lifeless. Her relationship to her husband seemed contrived. The descriptions and Mirielle's account of the abuse amounted to "it was horrible"--or atleast that was the take away I am left with as a reader. I had to force myself to finish the book.

I read this book twice in three days! I could not put it down. Ms. Gay creates a story that has you from page one. The opportunity to explore each character and have true emotions for each one is amazing. If you want a story to wisk you away... read An Untamed State.

This was my introduction to Ms. Gay's work and I am so ready for what's to come.

Roxane Gay is one of my heroines. Her writing is so honest. And she is unafraid (probably this is more true of her essays). I enjoyed this and if this novel is the one beingmade into a movie, I'm buying a ticket now.

I loved this book. An Untamed State pulled me in with its gorgeous language, compelling characters, and vivid sense of place. It kept me going with its suspenseful, believable plot. I'm looking forward towards Gay's next novel. Incredible talent.

This was a tough read for me as a survivor of sexual violence, but it was also healing and satisfying in a way that might be unique to those of us who have experienced some measure of Mireille's "ordeal."

I honestly do not know where to begin. As an advocate for survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and in short.... all of the least, lost and forgotten. This book was as close to describing the horrors of trauma a survivor fights through. This story was well written, descriptive and needed for so many. Roxane Gay outdid herself! A PHENOMENAL read!!

Hideous antiLavalas propaganda disguised as a novel. Seems geared to titillate as bdsm erotica as a means to persuade readers of an absurd pseudoreality monsterizing the militants of the infinitely persevering, revolutionary people of Haiti. The novel appears to be substantially derived from, and transforming for propagandistic purposes, this article http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2011-01-13/news/horror-in-haiti-kidnappings-are-a-big-business/

melodramatic, boring, redundant and poorly written with a lot of gratuitous, violent rape scenarios
i'm not sure which is more incredible, the fact that this book has so many good reviews, or the fact that i finished it.

I hoped this book would be so much better. In fact , it seemed actually smutty. I felt like I was reading something written by a teenage boy with torrid fantasies of sex and violence and guns. The characters all seemed like cliches, and I didn't care a bit for any of them. I felt oddly dirty after reading it, and I think the author was exploiting a truly awful state of affairs in Haiti by writing a
piece of pulp fiction - for the money?

Though in Edwidge Danticat's opening salvo of puffery, she chastens, "Once you start this book, you will not be able to put it down," I found this book very easy to put down. Clunky lines like, "He rested an arm on the armrest between us and I idly brushed the golden wisps of hair on his arms. I smiled and rested my head on his shoulder" (pg. 4). Gay is not a prose stylist, for sure. The book is full of "smiles, smiled, smile, nod, nodded," etc., shorthand micro-gestures that would make any one of Gay's writing students blush with embarrassment. The story is reasonable, thriller-esque (sort of), yet uses broad characters to deal with issues, rather than deepen the characters in a more organic way. Avoid!

I thought the book was interesting given she looks at the world from a Racist view you know its the always picking on me Libtard philosophy.
The constant name calling and in general just a poor outlook on life!

Not a great book. A whole lot of gratuitous violence describing the rape and torture of a kidnapped woman in a third world country. So, what else is new? When are women going to stop putting up with violence against them and virtual slavery? In what third world country are men totally denied education, made to cover their face and bodies in public, and forced to have children against their will. In what country are men routinely subject to sexual violence in peacetime and war? Poverty is no excuse. It is obviously an ancient male conspiracy usually in the name of religion causing the women of the world to be virtual slaves. It's time for women to free themselves from male tyranny in all cultures. If the women of Nigeria had been armed, those young girls would never have been kidnapped. Access to birth control will allow women to have more control of their lives. Female priests will end the era of pedophilia in the church. Things can change, but it won't be easy.