Tag Archives: Salvage the Bones

Salvage the Bones: Tough World & Then Katrina Hits

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn WardSalvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward is a brutal novel:

  • Teen sex that might not be rape but isn’t exactly consensual
  • Dog fights
  • Teen pregnancy
  • A mom dying in childbirth
  • An overwhelmed, distant and alcoholic single father
  • Rampant poverty

And then Katrina comes down and blows everything to hell.

It’s a tough read (good thing I didn’t read it; the audiobook was very well done). But it’s also got heart. It won the 2011 National Book Award and there is some light that shines through the darkness: the language was poetic, the 14-year-old pregnant narrator loved the Greek myth of Jason and Medea, and when the action did pick up it had a great pace and feel.

But getting through it all was tough.

Sometimes books are like that. Sometimes life is like that.