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3rd out of 8 books
—
6 voters
Where the Line Bleeds
by
Jesmyn Ward
Joshua and Christophe are twins, raised by a blind grandmother and a large extended family in a rural town on Mississippi’s Gulf Coast. They’ve just finished high school and need to find jobs, but in a failing post-Katrina economy, it’s not easy. Joshua gets work on the docks, but Christophe’s not so lucky. Desperate to alleviate the family’s poverty, he starts to sell dru...more
Paperback, 230 pages
Published
November 1st 2008
by Agate Bolden
(first published December 1st 2006)
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I was captured by the title, after reading her other book in a club read selection "Savage the Bones," then I decided to read her other work. This is her debut novel. While reading nearly halfway, you are able to picture fraternal twins with slightly different traits but want to do things together--basketball, even work, or get the interview as a unit. However, Joshua gets it and makes Christophe frustrated and thinking he only has one route to go--sell weed. I recall my teen years around this a...more
Jasmyn Ward's debut Where the Line Bleeds focuses on the delicate familial interrelationship of fraternal twins, Joshua and Christophe DeLisle. Products of teenage love, they are raised by their legally blind maternal grandmother in a small town situated in the Deep South on the impoverished Mississippi Gulf Coast. They are restless men-children with no direction and nothing but time on their hands. The outlook is bleak: high school is behind them, college is never an option, and their rural, ba...more
I picked this book up at the library, mainly because I heard a story about the author on NPR. The story was about her other book, SALVAGE THE BONES - and I requested both books from the library, but this book became available at the library first. Set along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, this book is about twin brothers, Joshua and Christophe, and the very different paths their lives take once they graduate from high school. Abandoned by their mother, Cille, when they were five, and raised by their...more
After reading her second novel, Salvage the Bones, I was eager to devour all things Ward that I'd been missing. Thankfully, Where the Line Bleeds was in my local library (shout out to clpgh!) and when I say local, I mean, in my neighborhood. Serendipitous, considering the whole idea of community, (neighborhood, opportunities and choices) present throughout the novel: How do you make a choice when there doesn’t seem to be one? How do you break a cycle when you can’t notice that you’re in one? How...more
I enjoyed this story of fraternal twins Christophe & Joshua. Their struggle with adulthood is diverse; raised by their maternal grandmother Ma-mee and watched over by family members whose lives provide a positive influence or a flashing red sign. Their mother, Cille leaves their home on the Mississippi gulf coast for Georgia while the twins are young. Working in retail, she is able to send home funds but that only satisfies a material need, she fails to take care of their emotional needs as...more
I wish the story was as good as the cover and the title, but alas, I have been disappointed again. For my students, this just won't work, but I'll push it nonetheless and really won't need to because they will pick it up for the cover and because there's a bubble on the front cover that it's a recommended read for Essence readers.
Here are my problems with it (many of which are personal reading preferences): I do not like too much narrative description of the setting. In this case, too much abou...more
Here are my problems with it (many of which are personal reading preferences): I do not like too much narrative description of the setting. In this case, too much abou...more
Apr 19, 2012
Jenni Ogden
rated it
5 of 5 stars
Recommends it for:
Lovers of Southern fiction, writers
Shelves:
fiction
This is another superbly written book by Jesmyn Ward. For me it was not a page turner in the sense that "Salvage The Bones" was, but it was more an experience to savour. Jesmyn's ability to get inside her characters' heads is phenomenal. I don't think I have ever come across an author who can do it better. By the end of the book I felt as if I knew the twins, Joshua and Christophe, and their beloved Ma-mee intimately, and had gained many new insights into a world that is far from my own experien...more
In Correspondence’s “Archive for November, 2008,” Olga I. Steffan calls William Hogarth “the grandfather of modern sequential art.” If that’s so, then Jesmyn Ward’s his niece…or great grand-daughter…or ninth cousin twice removed: someone who can trace her artistic lineage directly back to this grandfather. Each chapter in Ward’s Where the Line Bleeds is the equivalent of a single drawing in one of Hogarth sequences: a meticulous, precise, hyper-observant allegory datailing the effects of time an...more
I love great writing. I love poetic detail. But the reason I couldn't give this book five stars, is that this book goes way over the top with detail, to the point, that you forget what she is writing about. Each page does not need a detailed description of topography and weather. It dilutes the beauty of the writing if every page delves into detail.
But I do recommend this book. Beautiful writing..just needs a little trim.
But I do recommend this book. Beautiful writing..just needs a little trim.
this was a really nice story. i'm not usually one for details but i liked the way the author described the food in this story, made me hungry:) the relationship between the brothers and their grandmother was heartwarming. some spelling and grammar mistakes were a little annoying, not in the dialog which was written mostly in southern vernacular, but in the actual context of the book. i did learn lots of new vocabulary words though:)
I was blown away by the bio of this author, so I expected more from her work. I wanted more resolution to the story. I felt the only thing I could conclude was no matter what happened, the fraternal twins she describes would always be loyal to each other no matter what. It wasn't enough. I didn't need her to show me that. I will watch for other works by this author.
This was a really good book. It follows a set of twins directly after graduating high school with no job prospects in a economically depressed area. It's a story of choices and the consequences of those choices. I highly recommend it.
May 02, 2011
Kae Cheatham
marked it as didnt-finish
Contemporary novel of the South. Twins in a 3-4th generation rural LA community. Although in 3rd person, it shifted frequently between characters, which I found annoying and occasionally hard to know the actual "speaker". Didn't finish.
gorgeous and haunting. nuanced detail. felt like i could taste the food and smell the air and feel the sweat dripping down my back. sometimes lost the story line for all the detail she captured, but still recommended.
Really 3.5 -- so much to admire, incredible sense of place and character. So moved by relationship between boys and Mamee. Plot did not move me as much as I would have liked.
I've finished chapter 1, and am debating whether to continue. The writing doesn't capture me like it did in Salvage the Bones. Not sure I will continue...
she has a slow way of story telling, so you are there with the character every day. with each page, they elevate and become real people, and you worry for them. and you pray that they can make their lives better.
that, to me, it the mark of a very skilled storyteller.
that, to me, it the mark of a very skilled storyteller.
Brotherly Love
Jesmyn Ward has written a hopeful novel. The very vivid descriptions coupled with the deep connections shared by fraternal twins, Joshua and Christophe, makes it feel as if you're apart of the story. WHERE THE LINE BLEEDS, admittedly, is slow at times, but, Ms. Ward's precision of the Mississippi dialogue and the dysfunction of the family keeps the book buoyant. Whereas I believe that some readers will find the book complicated, I believe that Ward has provided readers with a pleas...more
Jesmyn Ward has written a hopeful novel. The very vivid descriptions coupled with the deep connections shared by fraternal twins, Joshua and Christophe, makes it feel as if you're apart of the story. WHERE THE LINE BLEEDS, admittedly, is slow at times, but, Ms. Ward's precision of the Mississippi dialogue and the dysfunction of the family keeps the book buoyant. Whereas I believe that some readers will find the book complicated, I believe that Ward has provided readers with a pleas...more
Beautiful writing but it seemed to drag.
Jan 19, 2012
Linda
marked it as to-read
then read Salvage the Bones by the same author
Jan 24, 2009
Celeste Ng
added it
Though this is a devastated landscape, there's so much love and beauty here, and Ward's gorgeous writing lets you see it. The author's love for her characters is so palpable throughout. You can feel her carefully guiding them through their lives, sometimes raising them up, sometimes letting them stumble, but always for a reason, and always with tenderness.
I really wanted to love this novel, given how much I adore "Salvage the Bones". I wasn't very held by the story, but really love the author's writing. Perhaps this deserves a 3.5 out 5. It's an intersting story about a pair of twins as their lives go in different directions and the events that catapult them back together.
I was required to read this book for a Women's Lit class, and I couldn't finish it fast enough. It was torture. Ward's prose is beautiful at times, but there is simply NO plot & a cast of stereotypical characters. I'll sum it up for you: weed, basketball, hair braiding, & endless, boring description. Don't waste your time.
Jesmyn Ward writes really well-- she has great attention to detail and makes her characters, their actions, and their landscape very easy to imagine. The lifestyle and language of her characters stand in sharp contrast to her beautiful writing, making a very interesting and complex contrast.
This is a great book. It really has a feeling for place. In this case, its the coast of the Mississippi River, near New Orleans. Its a story about two brothers, out of school and ready to start their lives. People should give this book a try. Its worth it.
Ward has become one of my favorite authors. I love her character development. Beautiful writing.
Oh wow, I finished this a million years ago. It was wonderful!
Sep 06, 2008
Charlotte
marked it as to-read
woo hoo! woooooo!
Jan 26, 2009
Rachel
added it
Wonderful!
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Jesmyn Ward is a former Stegner Fellow (Stanford University), and the Grisham Writer in Residence at the University of Mississippi. She is an assistant professor of Creative Writing at the University of South Alabama.
Her work has appeared in BOMB, A Public Space and The Oxford American.
More about Jesmyn Ward...
Her work has appeared in BOMB, A Public Space and The Oxford American.
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Jan 27, 2012 07:10pm