“Salvage the Bones” by Jesmyn Ward

REVIEW BY MEREDITH MCKINNIE

“I will tie the glass and stone with string, hang the shards, above my bed, so that they will flash in the dark and tell the story of Katrina, the mother that swept into the Gulf and slaughtered. She left us a dark Gulf and salt burned land. She left us to learn to crawl. She left us to salvage. Katrina is the mother we will remember until the next mother with large, merciless hands, committed to blood, comes.” 

Esch Batiste is a motherless child, surviving alongside three brothers, an inebriated father consumed with grief, and an approaching storm hell bent on ravaging the Gulf Coast. Saddled with maternal responsibility since her mother’s death, Esch is waged in an internal battle of womanhood, adjusting to her developing body and the attention it brings. Her brothers are consumed in their own worlds, a much different reality from their sister. Skeetah is focused on his dog fighting champion China, whom he lathers with love and care in the shed alongside the shotgun house where the Batiste family resides. Randall has his eyes set on basketball glory, and Junior hides under the porch, isolating himself from the outside world. In the poverty-stricken town of Bois Sauvage, black families lack opportunity, resources, and recognition. Regardless of circumstance, Ward creates a world where familial relationships are strong, bonds run deep, and survival is essential. 

The novel is divided into 12 chapters, each representing a day leading up to and during Hurricane Katrina. In retrospect of the impact of the 2005 storm, we wince at the family’s disregard for the news warnings, also realizing that knowing everyone should leave doesn’t necessarily mean all can afford to. Esch’s father, having survived the previous once-in-a-lifetime storm Camille, is in constant preparation, ordering the children to board up the house. Lacking in authoritative control, the father is more of a loud voice than an influential presence. When the storm inevitably hits, the Batistes face rising water, torrential winds, and a community devastated once the winds die down. Ward’s description of the storm and its impact takes readers into the eye of a natural disaster while struggling to survive life on its own terms. 

Ward’s characters are the unseen, the rarely depicted people outside of stereotypical sideline characters. She focuses her novel inside the working-class black community, the often forgotten people in places with profound limitations, but no less forced to make a life in it. Ward speaks for her own community, a place where she still lives and remains committed to sharing untold stories. Jesmyn Ward is a critically acclaimed author. Salvage the Bones was the recipient of the National Book Award for fiction in 2011.