Salvage the Bones September 2015

September 2015 Book Selection

The Fairfax Library Book Discussion Group will meet Thursday, September 10th at 7 p.m. to discuss our September book Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward.

Discussion questions, author bio and interview and book reviews are attached.

Here are some links for additional background and information:

Before and after photos of Hurricane Katrina

DeLisle, Mississippi – author’s hometown and basis for fictional Bois Sauvage

The story of Jason and Medea

Coming up, we have the following books to look forward to reading:

Thurs. Oct. 8             Someone by Alice McDermott

Thurs. Nov. 12          Consequences by Penelope Lively

Thurs. Dec  10          Outline by Rachel Cusk

Thanks for reading with us. I look forward to seeing you at the Fairfax Library.

Beth Bailey-Gates

Friends of the Fairfax Library

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward

1.      Salvage the Bones opens with China giving birth to a litter of puppies in the shed. What do we learn about Esch and the rest of the Batiste family during this scene? How does each of Esch's brothers react to the puppies' birth? What will Esch learn about motherhood from watching China with her puppies? 

2.      Esch's summer reading assignment, Mythology by Edith Hamilton, includes the story of the tragic romance between Jason and Medea. How does the myth of Jason and Medea relate to Esch's relationship with Manny? In the end, does Esch betray her family for love, as Medea does? 

3.       Chart Esch's attitude toward her pregnancy through the 12 days of the novel. How does Esch first realize that she might be pregnant, and how does she react when her suspicion is confirmed? When do we see Esch in stages of denial, fear and acceptance? How do Skeetah and Daddy respond when they discover Esch's pregnancy? 

4.       Discuss the nature of Skeetah's bond with his pit bull, China. Why is Skeetah so committed to China and her puppies? How does Skeetah negotiate his responsibilities to his family and to his dog? 

5.       How does Daddy seem to know that a storm is coming before anyone else does? How do his children and neighbors react to his early preparations? Why do Daddy's precautions fail in the face of Katrina's destruction? 

6.       Esch wonders "if Daddy will feel his missing fingers the way we feel Mama, present in the absence" (247). Discuss the presence of Mama in the novel, even though she has been dead for seven years. How does Mama live on in her children's memory? 

7.       The fifth chapter has the same title as the novel, "Salvage the Bones." Review the chapter and discuss what the title means. How does the title fit the chapter as well as the novel as a whole? 

8.       Discuss the depiction of violence in Salvage the Bones. What do scenes of violence— including Daddy's loss of his fingers, China's brutal killing of her puppy and the dogfight between China and Kilo—add to the novel? How do violence and tenderness coexist in this troubled setting? 

9.       Consider how Manny betrays Esch and her brothers. How does Manny treat Esch before and after he learns of her pregnancy? Why does Manny turn on Skeetah and China and support Rico and Kilo in the dogfight?

10.   Randall tells Skeetah, "You just like Daddy. Always crazy for something" (157). Discuss the similarities and differences between Skeetah and Daddy. How do the similarities between father and son create conflict between them? 

11.   Discuss the setting of Salvage the Bones. How does the Pit—the lot where the Batiste family has lived for generations—look and feel? What is it like to grow up in the town of Bois Sauvage? What are race relations like in this rural Mississippi area? 

12.   Review the scenes of the hurricane, in which Esch, her brothers and Daddy scramble from their attic to their roof and then to Mother Lizbeth and Papa Joseph's house to escape the rising water. How do these family members help one another survive these treacherous conditions? Why does Daddy throw Esch into the water, and how does he later express regret? 

13.   Skeetah lets go of China in order to save Esch from drowning in the storm. Does Skeetah seem to regret his choice of sister over dog? What is the mood at the end of the novel as Skeetah waits by the house for China to return to him? 

14.   Big Henry tells Esch, "This baby got plenty of daddies" (255). Name the "daddies" who will help Esch raise her child. What assistance does each of these boys and men have to offer? 

15.        Compare the portrayal of Katrina in Salvage the Bones with what you saw of the hurricane in the news. Which aspects of the storm's devastation does this novel bring to life? What does Esch's perspective add to your understanding of Katrina's impact? 

16.  The story in Salvage the Bones is told by Esch Batiste, who has just finished tenth grade. Was Esch’s teenaged voice believable? Why or why not?

17.  What is the theme of Salvage the Bones or the main thing Ward is trying to say in the novel?

18.   Other books about Hurricane Katrina have dealt with broad social or political issues, such as the treatment of evacuees by federal agencies. Ward focuses on one family, the Batistes: Esch and her father, Claude, and her brothers Randall, Skeetah and Junior. How would you describe the Batistes? How does Hurricane Katrina change the family? What do we learn from its story?

19.  Sam Sacks of the Wall Street Journal said that the bond between Esch’s brother Skeetah and his dog, China, is “the strongest and most affecting in the book.” Do you agree? Why does Skeetah allows China allow to enter the dog fight described in the chapter called “The Eighth Day” if he loves her so much? [pages 153–176]

20.  What race did you assume Manny (the father of Esch’s baby) to be? Many critics seemed to assume that he was black. But Ward says that Manny had a “red sunburn” [page 16]. Black skin can burn, but it doesn’t turn red in the same way that white skin does. Would it make a difference if a black teenager in the Deep South had been impregnated by a white or Latino boy?

21.  How would you describe Ward’s writing style? How well did it suit the subject of her book? [Background: Some critics have called that style “poetic.”Ward seemed to agree when she told the Paris Review: “I’m a failed poet. Reading poetry helps me to see the world differently, and I try to infuse my prose with figurative language, which goes against the trend in fiction.” But Salvage the Bones also has journalistic aspects – for example, when Ward describes the onslaught of Katrina by quoting weather reports.]

22.  Salvage the Bones links Esch’s story to that of Medea, who murdered her children to avenge her betrayal by her husband, and to other figures from Greek mythology. How effective was this literary technique? Were you persuaded, for example, by Esch’s comment that she slept with boys “because for a moment, I was Psyche or Eurydice or Daphne”? [p. 16]

23.  Ward explained the Medea analogies by saying in a Paris Review interview: “Medea is in China most directly. China is brutal and magical and loyal. Medea is in Hurricane Katrina because her power to unmake worlds, to manipulate the elements, closely aligns with the storm. And she’s in Esch, too, because Esch understands her vulnerability, Medea’s tender heart, and responds to it.” Can you give examples of how China is “brutal” as Medea and Esch is “tender”?

24.  Have you lived through a hurricane or other natural disaster? If so, how did you react to the portrayal of Hurricane Katrina? What seemed most and least believable?

25.  What does the title Salvage the Bones mean? Esch suggests more than one answer when she says of Katrina, “She left us to salvage.” [page 255] What is being “salvaged”?