An Untamed State
A Haitian American woman survives a brutal kidnapping in this "commanding debut novel" from the New York Times-bestselling author of Bad Feminist (The New Yorker).
Author and essayist Roxane Gay is celebrated for her incisive commentary on identity and culture, as well as for her bestselling nonfiction and short story collections. Now, with An Untamed State, she delivers a "breathtaking debut novel" (The Guardian, UK) of wealth in the face of crushing poverty, and the lawless anger produced by corrupt governments.
Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti's richest sons, she lives in the United States with her adoring husband and infant son, returning every summer to stay on her father's Port-au-Prince estate. But the fairy tale ends when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, just outside the estate walls. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As her father's standoff with the kidnappers stretches out into days, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who despises everything she represents.
An Untamed State is a "breathless, artful, disturbing and original" story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places (Meg Wolitzer, author of The Interestings).
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Community Reviews
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
367 pages
What’s it about?
This novel is about a young, wealthy Haitian-American woman who is kidnapped on a family visit to Haiti. The violence is brutal, but once you start reading this book you will do nothing else until you have read the last page.
What did it make me think about?
It made me think of extreme wealth and extreme poverty living side by side. How they coexist, but not easily. Also, it made me NOT want to visit Haiti.
Should I read it?
Roxane Gay writes in such a clear, direct way. I am sure we will be reading her work for years to come. My suggestion- don't start this book unless you can put everything aside to read.
Quote-
"When my mother and I had conversations about kidnapping in the before, I got angry. I told her there were people who needed her. I told her if she were kidnapped, she would have no choice but to survive. I told her nothing truly bad happens when someone is kidnapped, that kidnapping is only a matter of time and money and that she would always have both. This was when it was easy to speak wrongly on such things. In the after, I understood my mother's fears more clearly. She knew my father too well."
8 1/2 stars
I also really liked that the main character never forgave her father because that would have been too much of a happy ending, and this was more realistic. Finally, I loved the main character's development of a close relationship with her in-laws and how they really became a found family for her. That's one of my favorite things, and she finally chose a family that would help and support and look after her.
I need a glass of wine just to revisit what I finished reading a couple nights ago. Speaking of the night I finished it, I slept like crap that night. I was in that in and out of state of maybe I'm dreaming but maybe I'm not, maybe I'm sleeping but maybe I'm not. 100% due to this book.
This is the book I told all my friends about. Several want to pick it up. A couple know they wouldn't be able to handle it. They're probably right; it's pretty damn tough to read.
As a woman, as a mother, I was crying. A LOT.
I really loved this book. I loved Mireille. I loved Michael.
The worst thing about books like this are the nitpicky reviews that get too offended, too political, too whatever and reduce a book like this to one star as if it was written by an eight-year-old with no editor. Shame on you.
One I'll remember for a long time.
5 Stars
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