It's Tuesday . . . time for . . .
First Chapter First Paragraph Tuesday Intros hosted by Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea, where bloggers post the first paragraph(s) of a book they are currently reading or planning to read sometime soon.
Today I'm featuring a book I finished last week. Salvage the Bones by Jesmyn Ward is a novel about a Mississippi family's experience during Hurricane Katrina. The story follows them over a 12 day period.
THE FIRST DAY:
BIRTH IN A BARE-BULB PLACE
China's turned on herself. If I didn't know, I would think she was trying to eat her paws. I would think that she was crazy. Which she is, in a way. Won't let nobody touch her but Skeet. When she was a big-headed pit bull puppy, she stole all the shoes in the house, all our black tennis shoes Mama bought because they hide dirt and hold up until they're beaten soft. Only Mama's forgotten sandals, thin-heeled and tinted pink with so much red mud seeped into them, looked different. China hid them all under furniture, behind the toilet, stacked them in piles and slept on them. When the dog was old enough to run and trip down the steps on her own, she took the shoes outside, put them in shallow ditches under the house. She'd stand rigid as a pine when we tried to take them away from her. Now China is giving like she once took away, bestowing where she once stole. She is birthing puppies.
What do you think? Would you continue reading?
This isn't a book I would have chosen for myself, but read it because of a book club. The family members in the story are no strangers to tough times and tragedy, and their plight is made worse by the harrowing experience of living through a category 5 hurricane. The novel is well-written, but it was a difficult read for me.
First Chapter ~ First Paragraph #140 was originally published by
Catherine for bookclublibrarian.com. This post cannot be republished
without attribution. Retweeting and sharing on Google+ encouraged.
No comments:
Post a Comment