Welcome, dear ones! I hope you are as excited as I am to begin our book club discussion of Roxane Gay’s brilliant debut novel An Untamed State. As soon as I read the first few pages, I knew it would be a perfect fit for our readers. I mean, heads up, this is not a novel about raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens, which Roxane helpfully lays out for you in her opening paragraph:
Once upon a time, in a far-off land, I was kidnapped by a gang of fearless yet terrified young men with so much impossible hope beating inside their bodies it burned their very skin and strengthened their will right through their bones. They held me captive for thirteen days.
They wanted to break me.
It was not personal.
I was not broken.
This is what I tell myself.
But if you read that, and feel equipped to delve into the novel that follows it, we’re here with you. This first discussion is going to cover only the very short excerpt which can be found here, so that everyone is able to follow along, and I hope that you will immediately fall all over yourself to buy the full novel. Okay? Let’s begin.
This is just a teaser to get you hooked before we jack up the price, so you may not even have billions of thoughts yet. I love the lushness of the writing, I love how she establishes the very particular kind of careless happiness enjoyed by her protagonist, and, to be entirely honest, I am deeply, deeply relieved that her baby is not coming with her to whatever horrible place she’s about to be taken.
Talk to me! Also, how would you like us to go with these, generally? I’d like to meet back in two weeks to talk more, and I’ll update you soon with how far along we’ll be up to for then, but if you have questions for Roxane, or particular ideas you want to tease out, tell me.
Tags: an untamed state book club, book club, books, roxane gay
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I just finished this and it’s the best book I have read this year. Everyone, go buy it right now.
Plus, I am going to brag here and tell you that Roxane signed my book with “We will always have Chaning Tatum’s neck.”
Which is the best Roxanism ever.
I bought and devoured this book based on that excerpt from when Nicole posted it before, and oh man. Oh man. So good.
I also love the writing, which is spare and almost matter-of-fact, in a way. It really fits the protagonist. But mainly, woo, did this first section hit me in the Mom Feels hard. I was also very glad that her baby didn’t go with her, but simultaneously, viscerally horrified at the thought of being taken from my own child like that. I think her status as a mother and relationship to her child throughout the book is a really interesting thread for discussion. (Also, her husband: At some point, we have to talk about whether is the worst or kind of okay, or both.)
My take on the husband: kind of okay, but completely unequipped to deal with what was happening to her. I don’t want to say too much before we get into a deeper discussion, but one of the things that was so heartbreaking about the book for me was that each of them was going through their own hell, and the things that they needed from each other were not compatible.
The character I’m really excited to talk about is Mirielle’s mother-in-law.
Oh yes, she is interesting. I will also hold back on my thoughts on the husband, except to say I thought he was perfectly written.
concur – perfectly written!
Yes! Her character arc was fascinating, and I’m still 50/50 on whether or not I find it … I’m not sure believable is the right word when discussing fiction? Maybe probable is better?
For me Mirielle’s father is a fascinating character. So hard and difficult.
Without going into much detail, I’m going with okay. His actions seemed to stem more from ignorance and confusion than a place of judgment or something. At some points it shocked me how clueless he was, and then I remembered that a vast majority of people who are not in beautiful misandrist circles like ours would do the exact same things, and do them out of love.
my feeling on the husband is mostly exactly in line with this. He reacts in understandable, if really unhelpful ways. But I will have more to say later.
Hooray! I was late to the party for Middlemarch but I found an autographed (!) copy of An Untamed State and I’m enthusiastically joining in for this one. I’ve never been in a book club before and have always considered reading to be a solitary event, so this will be interesting.
Whoa, that opening. I think I’m going to the bookstore maybe right now?
I will read this. Look forward to the convo.
I, too, more or less devoured this book. So I don’t want to say a lot because I don’t want to ruin anything, but I absolutely agree that everyone should go out and start their devouring right now. Ah, I am no good at restricting my remarks to only a piece of this. I should have tried to read on pace.
I just read the teaser and HOO BOY. Echoing thebellewitch’s love of the spare, gorgeous writing–it really helps to propel the plot along, and doesn’t waste anything. Everything happens so fast! We are GOING. It’s terrifying.
HOO BOY and HOLY WOW were basically my initial reactions to this book. See also, sobbing. I read it at work (bad choice) in a day, and then couldn’t fall asleep until at least two in the morning, because my brain was still whirring with it.
Which is all to say, I’m super excited for this book club.
Checking back in to say that I picked it up from the library yesterday and had to FORCE myself to go to bed at 1:45am last night. HOLY WOW indeed.
I devoured that excerpt when you first posted it, I need to grab this book and join in for the big read! I keep meaning to do these Toast book clubs and damnit, this time I WILL!
If anyone is wondering whether to get the audio book, I am here to say that I really liked the narrator. Her reading is a bit cold and almost distant-sounding at first, but her matter-of-fact narration suits the tone of the book, I think, and when she does get more emotive it punctuates things perfectly.
I too, devoured this book and have so much I want to talk about. Everyone hurry up and read it so we can get into it!
Seconded – and I loved listening to her French especially. I have been trying to parrot her “Port-au-Prince” ever since.
I devoured the whole book in a weekend to myself while painting furniture, playing video games, and staring at the ceiling of my bedroom. It was perfection.
Can’t wait to dive in!
Seconded – and I loved listening to her French especially. I have been trying to parrot her “Port-au-Prince” ever since.
I devoured the whole book in a weekend by myself while painting furniture, playing video games, and staring at my bedroom ceiling. It was perfection.
Can’t wait to dig in!
Oh man, so both Matt and I read this on our honeymoon (in hindsight maybe not the best honeymoon reading) and thoroughly enjoyed it. One of the things that struck me was how rounded every single character was, and now I deeply understood every single motivation, even if I disagreed with the actions. And some of those motivations come from really uncomfortable places! Everyone just seems so thick and human.
I had a really difficult time getting through the first half, but then read the second half in one sitting. I look forward to chatting about it with everyone! And maybe also having a conversation about books that are really difficult to read, because of the subject matter, but also not wanting to stick your head in the sand? Or how violence needs to be acknowledged, and that doesn’t mean it’s gratuitous?
I had the same reaction on first half/second half, and from the reviews that I’ve read on Goodreads many people felt the same way. I don’t know if that was because of the difficulty of the content matter, or the writing, or my level of interest and investment.
Part of my issue with the first half was the flashbacks, which I found unrealistic and almost cloying. But I have also made peace with that, because they were mainly in Mirielle’s perspective, and I think that tone was purposeful.
I’m 24th in line at the library for 9 copies, so, for you, Roxane, I will use up the last of my Powell’s gift card. If I have enough. *fingers crossed*
That’s where I got my autographed copy, so you could luck out.
I was so surprised that there was no waiting list for this book in my metropolitan area library, and nobody was waiting for it when I returned it. It’s still so new!
Damn my enlightened populace with (apparently) excellent taste!
This book was HARD but I loved it. Oh, did I love it. Mirielle is so very real to me. I’m excited to talk more. Also, Lorraine. That lady.
I read the first 25% last night, which resulted in horrible dreams (do not recommend this as a bedtime book), but I know I’m going to read the rest of it as soon as I can. Mirielle is such a complex, real-feeling character–I appreciate that she’s not wholly likable. See, I just spent two minutes looking at the wall thinking about her. She inspires a lot of that.
*Mireille
(I realized I misspelled that last night and was having a hard time getting anything done until I acknowledged it)
I finished this book in a couple of days. So. Good. I was definitely hooked by the teaser available for free to read online and plowed through the rest as soon as it got to me in the mail. This was so INTENSE. Thank you for telling me to read it.
A bit late to the discussion but had to chime in with another endorsement of this book.
I went to Roxane’s book reading in Austin and if you ever have a chance to see her talk, go! She is just an all around delightful person. She said she would be doing another book tour for Bad Feminist.
One thing that came up at the reading is there have been complaints that Mirielle is an “unlikable character”. The discussion about characters, and especially female characters, needing to be likable is so frustrating for me. I find in my reading that I am not looking for likable characters but interesting characters. I know if I met Mirielle in real life we would not be friends but I found reading her story to be incredibly interesting. In fact all the characters in this novel are so well drawn and interesting. I can’t wait to discuss the next part.
Pretty excited to have a book club which is not made entirely of "Prestigious Literary Novels."
Damn my enlightened populace with (apparently) excellent taste!
Seconded – and I loved listening to her French especially. I have been trying to parrot her "Port-au-Prince" ever since.
I devoured the whole book in a weekend by myself while painting furniture, playing video games, and staring at my bedroom ceiling. It was perfection.
Can't wait to dig in!
I missed commenting on this post due to The Problems, but I am TOTALLY in. Loved the excerpt. Had already bought the book. Super looking forward to discussing with y’all.