Salvage the Bones

By Jesmyn Ward, Salvage the Bones reminds me of something by Zora Neale Hurston in that lyrical, almost poem-like quality of the narrativee. I don't usually go in for books that have even a hint of animal violence but this was so beautifully written I could not put it down, even after some fairly disturbing scenes. Ward is a true talent at revealing the depths of human emotion, and not all of it despair despite the dark circumstances of this novel. Much of the novel's beauty comes from Ward's carefully chosen, perfectly crafted sentences that land like little poems throughout this world of hurt. But even though this is a novel of death, and poverty, and nature's destruction, it is also a story of family, and rising up, and hope.