Book Review: Salvage the Bones
Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars
Fifteen year old Esch just found she’s pregnant. She keeps this secret to herself while watching her brother Skeetah take care of his prize dog-fighting pit bull China, who just had puppies. Her oldest brother Randall struggles to take care of the family while their alcoholic father tries to prepare for a coming hurricane. Their mother died giving birth to their youngest brother Junior and the family’s life in rural Mississippi has been extra hard ever since.
This book was beautiful and raw, both uplifting and upsetting. It was a wonderful story about survival in the midst of poverty and adversity. Every character is really well-developed. I was both sympathetic to and frustrated with most of them at one time or the other. This novel is told in the first person by Esch and takes place over the twelve days leading up to Hurricane Katrina. As the storm grows closer, the tension builds. The descriptions are so vivid; it felt like I was there with them. I could not put this book down for the last two chapters as the storm grew closer.
I’m not the only who loved this book – it’s a National Book Award Finalist for Fiction this year. (Winners will be announced November 16.)
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