Where the Line Bleeds
By Jesmyn Ward
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Joshua and Christophe are twins, raised by a blind grandmother and a large extended family in a rural town on Mississippi's Gulf Coast. Over the course of a single, life-changing summer, as they struggle to find work and contend with the reappearance of their parents – Cille, who left town for a better job, and Sandman, a dangerous addict – the brothers are forced into a series of decisions that will ultimately damn or save them.
A delicate and closely observed portrait of fraternal love and strife and the bonds that can sustain and torment us, Where the Line Bleeds marks the beginning of Jesmyn Ward's extraordinary career in fiction.
Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, the Strauss Living Prize, and the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. She is the historic winner—first woman and first Black American—of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing (2017) and Salvage the Bones (2011). She is also the author of the novel Where the Line Bleeds and the memoir Men We Reaped, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and the Media for a Just Society Award. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Tulane University and lives in Mississippi.
Read more from Jesmyn Ward
Salvage the Bones: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let Us Descend: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Men We Reaped: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Line Bleeds: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Fire This Time: A New Generation Speaks about Race Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fight of the Century: Writers Reflect on 100 Years of Landmark ACLU Cases Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Where the Line Bleeds
48 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jesmyn Ward is a national treasure.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This is the author's first novel and it was republished in 2018. While I liked this book, I much preferred her later book "Sing, Unburied, Sing". The story is set in rural Bois Sauvage, Mississippi during the summer of the high school graduation of twins Joshua and Christophe, who were raised by their diabetic and blind grandmother. Their feckless parents, Cille and Samuel, had only sporadic contact with the boys. Joshua manages to find a physically demanding job working on the docks. Christophe is embarrassed by his failure to find a job and contribute to the family, and he becomes a small time drug dealer. There wasn't much plot in this book and the story was too meandering for me. The writing was very good and the brothers and their grandmother were realistic and likable characters. I also liked the close relationship between the brothers that survived the challenges set before them. However, the story was too slow and uneventful for me to love it. There was an awful lot of hair braiding going on. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A small town on the Mississippi Gulf coast, twins Christophe and Joshua are set to graduate high school. Raised by their grandmother after their mother left and their father succumbed to the lure of drugs, they want only to get jobs so they can help make her life easier. Joshua gets a back breaking job on the docks, but Christophe gets no call backs. In an effort to make money he turns to illegal activities. This causes a big division between the close relationship the twins had, and a hardship on their grandmother who sees how unhappy they are, wishing only that they were young as again so she could hug them and make it all better.This is Wards first book, and though not as gritty as those that come after, it does perfectly depict the poverty of those in these forgotten communities. Where drugs are often the answer, where jobs are scarce and most of those of only minimum wage. It is also a novel full of love, as this is a family that wants to stick together, but is torn apart by the lack of employment and the loss of pride of Christophe as he does things he never thought he would do. It will take a horrible incident to bring this family to senses, with the hope of better things to come. The novel does end with hope, hope and love. I would not consider this a YA book, it is to realistic and at times violent for that to be the designated readership. It shows her wonderful talent at tackling difficult subjects and make us care for the people involved. The descriptions of their lives are rendered authentically, and we are drawn inside this small family as they face the many hardships and yes, joys too. ARC from edelweiss.
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Jesmyn Ward writes beautifully. There is poetry in her style. Sometimes, I just wanted to stop and read out loud to hear the words. The plot is simple. Twin brothers living in tiny-town poverty graduate from high school. One gets a job, the other doesn't and turns to small time drug dealing. But this book is not about the plot, it is about the characters, whom I quickly grew to care about. I was propelled not by wondering what would happen next, but by my interest in their lives, and my hope that things would work out for them. Though I don't have any first hand experience with the culture and environment where the book is set, it always felt fully realistic and convincing to me.