A review by serendipitysbooks
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay

challenging dark tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

 An Untamed State is a dark, disturbing and confronting read. Told in two parts, it is the story of Mirielle Duval Jameson. She is a Haitian, married to an American and living in Miami. On a trip back to Haiti to introduce her parents to her baby son, she is kidnapped and held captive for thirteen days before her father, a wealthy businessman, pays and ransom and she is eventually freed. The first half of the book is centred on her kidnapping and period in captivity, with numerous flashbacks to her previous life, especially her relationship with her husband Michael. This section is packed full of trigger warnings, particularly for physical and sexual violence. What I found interesting was the depiction of Mirielle’s mental state, and the tricks she used to try and survive, tricks that saw her try to dissociate from what she was experiencing. The second part of the book looks at what happens after she was freed. While her physical scars were horrific the mental and emotional scars were worse. Gay did an excellent job of presenting Mirielle’s pain, her visceral vulnerability as she learned to cope with her sense of security and self-worth, her very identity, having been ripped from her, and her efforts, some more constructive than others, to learn to live with unforgettable trauma.

This was a deeply uncomfortable and confronting read, unflinching but not gratuitous, one that exposes the dark underbelly of Haiti and the toll that extracts. It highlights the economic iniquities in that country, the anger and resentment evoked, and showcases one way those tensions play out. I can’t say I enjoyed reading this book - the subject matter precludes that - but I don’t regret the reading experience.

“I did not deserve the unwanted attentions of a man like you. It is often women who pay the price for what men want.” 
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