Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
A short book, but very, very powerful. The book centers on one family in a rural, economically depressed area of Mississippi, in the days leading up to and including the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. The family is without their wife/mother, who died giving birth to the youngest in the family several years prior. The husband/father drinks too much, and seemingly leaves the kids to themselves as he only worries about preparing for any hurricane. As such, the kids - the narrator Esch, Skeetah, Randall, and Junior - are the primary and compelling characters in the book, and speaks to the bonds created by family and grief.
Katrina sits over the pace of the book. The pace builds throughout, starting 10 days before Katrina hits, and going day by day. So, as a reader, you know what's coming. It still doesn't prepare you - Day 11 (Katrina landfall), and Day 12 (the day after) - are as emotionally gut wrenching as a book can get. Family, love, sacrifice, grief are all explored on the individual level. At a larger level, the novel points to the very different culture and life individuals experience as a result of poverty and isolation.
A gripping, powerful book to read.
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