Title: An Untamed State
Author: Roxane Gay
Genre: thriller
To get right to it- this is easily one of the best books I’ve read this year. I’ve been a fan of Roxane Gay’s for year, but I’ve never read her fiction. I loved Hunger: A Memoir of (My) Body and have read plenty of her essays, but this was her first novel. I pulled this off my shelf at random and had no idea what it was about or what to expect. And it turned out to be just fantastic. I couldn’t read it fast enough.
From Goodreads: Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men, in front of her father’s Port au Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself The Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.
An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a wilful 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. An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent.
The first half of the book is about Mireille and her captors, and it’s very descriptive as to what happens, although not necessarily graphic, but it definitely will be hard for some to read. The second half (this isn’t a spoiler…she tells us she was released after thirteen days on page 1) is about Miri trying to come to terms with and heal her mind and body. The chapters about Miri are from her perspective, but there are chapters about her husband and father that are third-person narrator, which was an interesting shift. It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what I loved about this book because some of it is so brutal, but Miri’s strength and resolve are admirable. This book also puts life into perspective. The value of life, the importance of family and loyalty, the strength to survive. I cannot recommend this book enough. Just absolutely amazing.
Pleasant Nights 