The Whiteness of Bones

by Susanna Moore

In her ravishing and moving second novel, the bestselling author of In the Cut tells the story of Mamie Clarke, who sets out to lose herself in New York City.

Having only previously known the fragile, magical world of her childhood on the lush Hawaiian island of Kaua’i, Mamie leaves college to visit her sophisticated aunt in New York. With her beautiful and self-destructive younger sister Claire in tow, Mamie must learn to make her way in a world of money, power, sex, and drugs. Moore’s sharp and witty book captures an unforgettable time and place—the Manhattan of the early 80s— and the powerful feelings engendered there.

Genres: Fiction, Contemporary

289 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1989

About the author

Susanna Moore is the author of the novels One Last Look, In the Cut, The Whiteness of Bones, Sleeping Beauties, and My Old Sweetheart, which won the Ernest Hemingway Foundation/PEN Award for First Fiction, and the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her nonfiction travel book, I Myself Have Seen It, was published by the National Geographic Society in 2003. She lives in New York City.

Reviews

[Anne Sanow · Rating 5 out of 5]

How could I have never rated this one before? It's one of my favorite coming-of-age novels, and one that, despite its imperfections, is nearly impossible to get out of my head. (For one thing, it contains one of my favorite and most pitch-perfect lines of dialogue ever uttered by a character. Mamie's aunt Alysse on fashion: "Do underdress; it makes other women look older and vulgar.") Perhaps this one persists for me because I so admire the way that Moore doesn't adhere to the expected and wanders in her narrative. The reader isn't coddled or pandered to, and there's a jagged kind of potency here as a reward.

[Judi · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am haunted by this book --- by one of the last scenes in particular, and of course, I can not divulge more.

In this story, Mamie Clarke is trying to understand her place in the world, basically as defined by the physiognomy of the female body. While a child living at the family home in Hawaii a devoted household employee touches her "down there." She reports it to her father and faces the consequences ever after. Just as she is about to finish college, Mamie flees to New York to visit Aunt Alice (Alysse to her New York friends). She decides to stay and find a job and then her sister Claire suddenly shows up, adding a whole other dimension to her life. (Oh, I recall some of these frustrations with my sister!)

The writer really uses this story to explore the more self destructive side of feminism and self absorption of the eighties. Is it really all right if you are harming no one, but yourself? The book is about as unkind to the elite in New York City as Tom Wolf's BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES.

[Carly · Rating 5 out of 5]

“I would never die without telling you.”

[Mark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The majority of the action of Susanna Moore’s second novel, The Whiteness of Bones, takes place in Manhattan, even though the novel begins and ends, importantly, on the Hawaiian island of Kaua’i. Mamie Clarke unexpectedly drops out of college to spend time with her Aunt Alysse in Manhattan. Shortly thereafter, she is joined by her younger sister Claire. Both young women are set to have very different adventures, their attitudes and appetites for life having been shaped significantly by their adolescent years on Kaua’i.

Mamie is thoughtful, measured in her actions, cautious in relationships, concerned about looking after her younger sister, and generally restless. She was 12 years old when she was sexually molested by the family gardener on Kaua’i. It was a fairly benign sexual advance in which Mamie was passive. Her father fires the gardener and Mary, her misfit mother, can only muster enough concern to lament the loss of her gardener. Because of her parents’ reactions, Mamie blames herself and her maturing body for the incident and begins a search for liberating herself from guilt.

Claire arrives having just begged money from Mamie for an abortion. She now adopts a foolishly unguarded attitude to towards life. She is intent on exposing herself to a cocktail of every kind of experience, mostly involving dangerous sex and drugs and very unsavory people. She hops from one temporary job to another with no real purpose. She has total disregard for both Aunt Alysse’s apartment and that of the Crawfords, friends of Aunt Alysse.

Aunt Alysse and her set are self-indulgent, indolent, emotionally shallow, and filthy rich from multiple marriages or inheritances. Mamie manages to work steadily, and as she searches for some kind of purification, she is befriended and betrayed by various people. Despite a romantic relationship with wealthy Alder, she is still tentative. Her ability to focus on herself is constantly diluted by having to care for Claire whose debauchery and profligacy become increasingly reckless and life-threatening.

At Mamie’s birthday party, organized by Claire, things for both sisters take a terrible turn, and it is finally one striking act of egregious violence that allows Mamie to turn her sights homeward to Kaua’i to conclude her search for peace and a purity that is like the whiteness of bones. The book’s title comes from a ritual that was practiced by a drug-addicted, eccentric neighbor on Kaua’i. This woman took her daughter and Mamie to deserted beaches, got them to strip, and dance as if they were bleached, washed-up bones from a shipwreck.

Mamie leaves Claire—who is about to embark with Alysse on another wild jaunt and perhaps marry a duke—with the fateful prediction that Claire will become another Alysse or kill herself. On Kaua’i, a touching act of contrition by her mother regarding Mamie’s sexual assault finally brings mother and daughter to a poignant reconciliation.

Moore’s depiction of the two different-natured sisters is finely done. Her sparse prose describing the island’s lush environment is as stunning as is her depiction of the empty and meaningless life of socialite New Yorkers with more money than sense or feelings. The Whiteness of Bones is a fast and satisfying read.

[Virginia · Rating 5 out of 5]

I lived in NYC during the period covered in this book, but my experience of the wealthy is what kept me from reading it. In a kind of servile state as well, I was imprisoned in my own hell, thinking that the wealthy were better than my own forebears. It took me the whole decade to escape and while I didn’t have the problems these two girls faced, like them, I was used for the pleasures and purposes of the rich. My needs were ignored, much like Mamie so easily yields to her aggressors.

This book is incredibly vivid and the observations are completely apt. It’s a period piece that presages the “Me too” movement and should be read by every woman coming of age.

[Christina · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an extremely well-written book. It does everything a coming-of-age novel should, and it's beautiful. It tackles the difficult understandings of sex and transforms them into a journey though a young woman's mind as she comes to understand life and herself in it. Excellent.

-----
Edit: I re-read this again in March of 2009 for book club, and it absolutely held up to the test of time. It got better, in fact, with the second read. This book is so rich that I have no doubt re-reads for years will continue to improve it.

This is one of my top-ten favorite books.

[Fredsky · Rating 3 out of 5]

My rating is 3.65 for this book. It is difficult to separate this from Sleeping Beauties and My Old Sweetheart; together I give them a 3.75 and might read them again with a family tree handy. Moore's childhood, for all its complications, sounds idyllic. Then she left. Then she wrote these books... and then she was possibly bitten by a vampire and wrote In The Cut. She has said that she always writes about what it means to be a woman. Any remarks about this writer's development would be welcome.

[Rachelle Bowden · Rating 1 out of 5]

I thought I’d really like this book about two sisters, Mamie & Claire, who grew up on the west side of Kauai and moved to New York City, but I didn’t really. It was ok, not great. I only finished it to finish it and there were some brutal scenes near the end that made me wish I’d just put it down. I thought I’d like seeing New York through their eyes, but it was a pretty bizarro New York. I did like the scenes describing Waimea town and Koke’e and the Waimea River and other things on Kauai, though. There just wasn’t enough of that to make me like the book.

[Lisa Ruminski · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like many other readers, I wanted to like this book. It was promising at first, and the coming-of-age theme and 80s zeitgeist were engaging enough. Then it all degenerated into some kind of unimaginative, shock-value swirl into the toilet. I should have stopped when I actually lost interest.

[Crystal Yi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Haunting brings me genuine pain

[John Wilder · Rating 1 out of 5]

For masochists. The first chapters are intriguing, but thereafter the main character's increasing passivity towards sexual abuse increases. The last chapter's feeble attempt to redeem, is like a tissue picking up cat poop.

[Annie · Rating 4 out of 5]

trigger warning for this book FYI. descriptors Moore uses: nothing short of sumptuous. you can tell what a pleasure it was for her to describe in such minute detail, that pleasure is transferred to us. and place-grief is nailed so well in this book too.

[Marla · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lots of detail about Hawaii.
I could relate to Mamie at times, but also found her too overwrought in an unbelievable way.

[Nicholas · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very sweet, and nicely written. Engaging. A little heavy on the psychoanalyzing

[Colleen Hayes · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't like this book at all!

[Cwelshhans · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked parts of this one, and other parts just took me out of the book altogether.

[Jim Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Love this book

[Emma Olsson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh meh meh

[Kat Walter · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lyrical, dreamlike writing lulling the reader and then veering into something disturbing. Two sisters from Kaua’i navigate NYC in the 1980’s.

[amichai · Rating 4 out of 5]

“She felt as though her body, by some mistake or accident, had passed out of her keeping. I did not have it very long, she thought.”

HELP!!!!!!!! HELPPPP!!!!!!!!!

[Aaliyah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am sad and i want to go to hawaii

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

Too much sexual abuse in wistful tones for my taste. Didn’t age well, and we don’t have to valorize this crap anymore.

[Cassidy Gilmore · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have really mixed feelings reviewing this. It took me a long time to read because I was dreading the rape scenes.

I started out really enjoying this- imagining Maui from Mamie's description. She was such a lively child who cared so much and lived for joy and being good to others.

It's difficult because Mamie was sexually assaulted 3 times in this book (and between the ages of around 7-21). I'm not saying this isn't realistic - but 2 times in a few month period by difficult assaulters was a lot to read and they were both awful.

I'm choosing to give this a 3 because Mamie is a realistic character and she has so much to say and feel and I recognize parts of myself in her. This is absolutely not a book I will be rereading because it is too much. This is not a coming of age novel and I won't be recommending it to anyone. This is not to say rape shouldn't be discussed- but this book made it seem like a normal part of life. Sexual assault may be prevalent and it might occur with too high a frequency- but it is not normal.

[Bethyfly · Rating 2 out of 5]

After snatching this up years ago at a yard sale I was excited to actually begin. It was one of those books I wanted to like. But after a start that had me thoroughly engaged I was pretty disappointed by the brutal imagery and seemingly apathetic protagonist. There were a few bright spots of thoughtfulness for me towards the end but they didn't seem transformative enough to make up for the rest.

I couldn't see anyone I would recommend this book too and after the cover and some pages were damaged by my cat it ultimately made it's way to the trash (recycling).
Wasn't worth the space on my shelf and in too rough a condition for donating.

[MSJLibrary · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Whiteness of Bones by Susan Moore (1989, 277 pages). Moore’s novel is an intense look at the lives of two sisters, Mamie and Claire. Having grown up in rural Hawaii, the two sisters move to Manhattan after college. While Claire, the carefree younger sister, thrives there, Mamie, the more sensible and cautious of the pair, discovers quickly how naïve she has been and how cruel the real world can be. Mamie is a character of great depth, and the reader is quickly caught up in her struggle to assimilate.

[Kelly · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Whiteness of Bones was one of those almost really good books that are sometimes more frustrating than books that aren't good at all. It's the story of two sisters who grow up in Haiwaii and later move to New York City in the 1980s and fall in with the high society crowd. The story of their Hawaiian childhood is wonderful and unique, but only lasts for about a third of the book. That is the story that the author should have stuck with.

[Truthmonkey · Rating 3 out of 5]

It wasn't very interesting to start with, but there were some good and witty parts later in the book that saved it. The tone of thebook made me think of another author, but I can't put my finger on who, exactly. Lorrie Moore? Melissa Banks? It's a sad, life will never be better than this, kind of feel.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really liked this book! It's well written, Mamie is an engaging character, and her story felt raw and real. I was suprised by how I was captivated by this novel. It is a worthwhile read. The violence is not gratuitous, and the writing is stark and vivid.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This has some tough imagery but a great story of two sisters kinda like my sister and I. They are very different and sometimes indifferent toward each other but very protective of each other. I ended up liking the book by the end.

[Marci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was on the verge of giving it five stars. Impressed upon me in a strange and sleepy way. The narration was also a different style for me. I might be partial because of the Hawaii themes but I found Mamie an interesting character, as was everyone she loved.