Background

“Salvage the Bones” by Jesmyn Ward is the story of a rural family preparing for Hurricane Katrina. That family consists of pregnant 14-year old girl (no one knows at the time), her brothers, and her sometimes present (and usually unemployed) father. Her mother has died in childbirth, leaving Eesch as the only girl in a world of dog fights, boys, and abject poverty.

Then again, “Salvage the Bones” is not your typical “teen pregnancy” story.

 “Salvage the Bones” is a story about a boy with a strong relationship with his dog, China, and their journey through puppies, dog fights, parvo, and love. China is a legend and Skeeter will do everything he can to make sure China and her puppies live up it, no matter what it takes.

Then again, “Salvage the Bones” is not your typical “boy and pet” story either.

Evaluation

I was referred to the book in a Twitter conversation with Cameron Conaway, a social justice advocate, poet,author, and mixed martial artist.

“Salvage the Bones” by Jesmyn Ward was not what I expected given the title and the preview. I expected a heartfelt story about a rural family preparing to survive through Hurricane Katrina. What I read was one of the most emotionally gut-wrenching and detailed books I have ever read on rural poverty. Jesmyn Ward is a master at being able to provide tiny details about some minor thing in the character’s life and turn it into a poetic expression of the human expression. That expression is a tragic and brutal one, filled with dog fights, parental neglect, teen pregnancy, and cursing. It’s the kind of life you read about in the news covering a rural family living in poverty. Jesmyn enters that without apology and without being patronizing. This is simply the world Eesch and her family live in and they accept it for what is.

Jesmyn Ward also does an incredible job of displaying the fickle thoughts and emotions of a teenager in Eesch and Skeeter. Reading their dialogue (internal or external), readers get a chance to see their condition from the inside out. For example, Jesmyn is able to capture the cornucopia of feelings Eesch feels about her mother, her upcoming pregnancy, her relationship with boys, and her relationship with China. All of this comes out in all of its poetic and graphic detail like they do in real life.

Maintaining two simultaneous plots is strength of the book as well. Jesmyn is able to balance the story of Eesch’s conflicts about the nature of her upcoming motherhood with Skeeter’s journey with his dog. Both plots happen at the same time and both plots impact each other. 

“Salvage the Bones” is a great book, however, there are some things that might (and have) turned readers away from it. The first is the over-emphasis on emotion and tragedy. Although I liked this aspect of the book, the plot suffered a little because it was too focused on detail and emotion. That is most evident in the ending, which stopped rather than ended. After becoming so emotionally invested in the characters, the book didn't really end on a strong note. I wanted to know what would happen next. The second issue is the content itself. If you are not ready to confront the graphic reality of rural poverty and other aspects of our culture (like dogfights, teen pregnancy, etc.) then you probably are not ready for this book.

On this beautiful Saturday morning in the southwest, I am truly troubled and disturbed by what I am seeing and hearing.  As a true member of the Community Village, I have to wonder, are we the only souls trying to do right, or has the rest of the country lost its mind? It seems that since last year, we have learned absolutely jack about the consequences of mistreating our youth.  Enter Audrie Pott (R.I.P.). 

I look at her and wonder if she would have been the next bombshell to light up the music or theatrical world, or the next scientist to teach us about the 8-finned fish that has existed for ages.  Unfortunately, she won’t be doing either….she committed suicide last September. As best as anyone can tell, all because she was allegedly sexually assaulted by three of her high school classmates.  And please don’t think Social Media didn’t play its part – pictures of the incident appeared on Facebook.

We can take up the rest of the day discussing who is really at fault, but what the boys did was totally unacceptable on every level. Yes, when I was a teenager back in the 80’s we did some dumb crap.  Band camp always consisted of someone bringing shaving cream, spraying it in front of some unsuspecting clarinet player’s room and waiting on them to come out, or toilet papering the wall around our school on Seniors Day. Yes, I went to parties (when I was allowed) and watched my friends drink until they threw-up, helped the host to clean up, pass out water and aspirin and cook Hamburger Helper.  Now if you go to a party, even your friends leave you hanging, much less clean up afterwards.

I have to wonder seriously now, if this is not more than just a trend, but a counter-culture among many of our teen/young adult males. Start with Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris and the Columbine tragedy and more recently, Trent Mays and Ma’lik Richmond and the football rape case in Steubenville, Ohio last month.  While tragedies on opposite ends of the spectrum, there is something there that is causing this level of violent desperation and nervous anxiety among teen/young-adult males, regardless of race.

And I wonder further if all of the national debates going on about gun-control and 2^nd Amendment rights are predicated upon the wrong ideas.  At some point we have to start asking why someone so young would buy or steal a gun, why they would build a bomb, why they would kill their mother and her co-workers, and why they would have any kind of sexual contact with a girl who was unconscious, in such an indifferent and uncaring manner?

A story from Canada/Nova Scotia appeared this week too. Very similar in nature…heck, almost identical. Audrie’s parents would like to start “Audrie’s Law” at some point, which would call for harsher penalties for cyberbullying.  Support it when it comes up.  And let’s start asking some harder questions about our youth and what we're teaching them.