Title: Salvage the Bones
Author: Jesmyn Ward
Thoughts: This book fell short of my expectations, and I’m not sure why. Ward is an incredible writer, and the prose in this book is lyrical and rich and bold. The book is, at its heart, a story of a family surviving Hurricane Katrina, but there are so many other themes that I almost found the book clogged. On the topic of themes, though, I loved the theme of motherhood and the way it was woven through nearly every character in one way or another.
Favorite Lines:
“Seeing him broke the cocoon of my rib cage, and my heart unfurled to fly.” (p. 5)
“Centered as if the love that boy feels for them anchors them deep as a tree’s roots, holds them still as the oaks, which don’t uproot in hurricane wind. Love as certainty.” (p. 119)
“…and suddenly there is a great split between now and then, and I wonder where the world that day happened has gone, because we are not in it.” (p. 251)
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