Review: Salvage the Bones

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

The more time that passes since I've read this novel, the more I think about it and how different it is than most other novels I've read, and how it has remained with me since I finished it a few days ago.

Salvage the Bones started out a little slowly for me- it's a very different world than I'm used to and it didn't immediately pull me in (maybe because it was hard for me to imagine the life of this family in rural Mississippi).

Bits and pieces of the family's history come throughout the novel and I ate them up, eager to learn more about this family of four children and their father. It's in this way that many of the practices of survival and love that the family undertakes- alcoholism, dog fighting, and Esch's sexual experiences at such a young age- are contextualized. Rather than frowning on them or judging them, as a reader my heart ached because I saw what they were searching for or running from.

Jesmyn Ward's writing was superb. There were so many heart-wrenching scenes in this novel and Ward tackled them with unflinching honesty and hauntingly beautiful prose. Note: this novel is not for the faint of heart.

Salvage the Bones made my heart hurt, but it was one of those novels that you know is important as soon as you finish it. I won't forget about this one anytime soon.

View all my reviews