Where the Line Bleeds

I finally got to Jesmyn Ward’s first novel. Ward is drawn to stories of coming of age in the rural South. Her most recent novel, Sing Unburied Sing, gave us Jojo, a thirteen year old boy, thrown into adult roles and responsibilities, and preparation by trial. Her characters have to earn adulthood, and the odds aren’t usually all that good.

In Where the Line Bleeds, it’s the twins, Joshua and Christophe. They’ve just graduated from high school, an accomplishment in their circumstances, and you feel the tentative triumph of that moment. But now what?

You can almost look at it as an experiment. Twins following different paths. One, Joshua, finds a job, a girlfriend, and respectability. The other, Christophe, finds a harder path. You show more feel for both of them. Joshua loves his brother, and he doesn’t want to see him lag behind in life. And of course you root for Christophe, even as he seems to sabotage his own chances.

Ward has a genuine feel for the problem of growing up, both the triumphs and the failures. You can understand how Christophe holds himself down, and how he slips into what his circumstances — drugs, crime, and money — tempt him toward. Obstacles become fate. Especially as he lives the life of the “other” twin, not making it becomes what Christophe expects.

And you can understand the difficulty Joshua faces as well. He doesn’t need to take on the responsibility of his brother, but he does. If he didn’t, his road would be so much smoother. But that’s not his road.

All the characters Ward places around Christophe and Joshua add natural emphasis. Their father, Samuel or Sandman, is a disaster — he’s what failure looks like. Cille, their mother, is achingly absent. She’s pretty much just an ache, not a mother. Ma-mee, their grandmother and only present parent, is a moral guidepost but increasingly weakened. Leila, Joshua’s girlfriend, is almost like a Greek chorus. For Christophe and Joshua, she is a reflection — they see themselves in her, like a truth mirror.

i would read anything by Jesmyn Ward. When an author comes along who can see inside characters who feel real and who face real circumstances, she’s giving her readers a gift. show less

The Line Bleeds is the third book in the Bois Sauvage series and tells the coming-of-age story of twin brothers Joshua and Christophe, raised by their grandmother, Ma-Mee, in the impoverished south of Louisiana. Just out of high school, they struggle to come to terms with an absent mother and a drug-using father and quickly learn the world offers few chances to get ahead. Jesmyn Ward's way of painting each scene with fragrant smells—not all pleasant, frank inner-dialog, and colorful tiny details of the world she's creating always makes me feel like I'm right in the midst of the action. Good and gritty.

Upon finishing Where the Line Bleeds, I have now read all of Jesmyn Ward's books. Although this one was my least favorite, I still think she is one of the best writers around. I love her writing; it is poetry and down to earth all at the same time.

The love that shines through in Ward's characters gets past the difficulty of life in her stories. The tenderness these 18 year old twins showed their grandmother, who raised them, was exquisite, even while they are going through separation issues of their own as they try move on after graduating from high school.

I can't wait to read her next book.

A 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 show more 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. show less

Jesmyn 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.

I thought this was a very powerful book, that was very well written, although a little slow at times. So descriptive was the author, that I could vividly imagine the setting and the characters. The story was poignant, and touching; it showed pride, resilience, disappointment and hope. Joshua and Christophe are twin brothers just graduated from high school. They have been raised by their grandmother, Ma-Mee in a very rural part of Mississippi. It is clear that they love her deeply, and respect her even more. They were basically abandoned by their mother, Ma-Mee's daughter, and their father. Cille, their mother, comes in and out of their lives, often enough to sometimes give them hope that she might do motherly things, and their father is show more a drug addict who lives in the same town, but is too wrapped up in addiction to be anything other than an embarrassment. Both boys look forward to finding jobs and helping to support Ma-Mee. Joshua finds a job, a job that is hard and tedious, Christophe doesn't, which leads him to sell drugs. He makes good money, but never feels pride, he knows his money is dirty. He has Joshua lie about working overtime so Christophe can contribute. Their close relationship suffers. This book is all about relationships and family. Beautifully written. show less

Set in a poor, rural community on the Mississippi Gulf coast, this is an intimate tale of twin brothers whose lives diverge in the summer after high school graduation. There is such love and honesty in the telling of this story, balancing the despair and difficulties with hope, family and community. I was drawn in almost immediately by the boys - Joshua and Christophe - and the book never let me go. I'm still thinking about them! This is a very talented author's debut novel and I, for one, will be watching out for her future work.

I also wanted to add that I could not help thinking back to a book I read earlier this year while reading this book - also about two twin brothers whose lives diverge. That book is [Measuring Time] by Helon Habila.