An Untamed State (Paperback)

Staff Reviews

THIS IS THE PUBLISHER'S COPY: “An Untamed State is the kind of book you have to keep putting down because you can’t believe how good it is. Awesome, powerful, impossible to ignore, Roxane Gay is a literary force of nature. An Untamed State arrives like a hurricane.” —Mat Johnson, author of PymRoxane Gay is a powerful new literary voice whose short stories and essays have already earned her an enthusiastic audience. In An Untamed State, she delivers an assured debut about a woman kidnapped for ransom, her captivity as her father refuses to pay and her husband fights for her release over thirteen days, and her struggle to come to terms with the ordeal in its aftermath.Mireille Duval Jameson is living a fairy tale. The strong-willed youngest daughter of one of Haiti’s richest sons, she has an adoring husband, a precocious infant son, by all appearances a perfect life. The fairy tale ends one day when Mireille is kidnapped in broad daylight by a gang of heavily armed men in front of her father’s Port-au-Prince estate. Held captive by a man who calls himself the Commander, Mireille waits for her father to pay her ransom. As it becomes clear her father intends to resist the kidnappers, Mireille must endure the torments of a man who resents everything she represents.An Untamed State is a novel of privilege in the face of crushing poverty, and of the lawless anger that corrupt governments produce. It is the story of a willful woman attempting to find her way back to the person she once was, and of how redemption is found in the most unexpected of places. An Untamed State establishes Roxane Gay as a writer of prodigious, arresting talent. 

This powerful novel about a woman kidnapped for ransom in Haiti grabbed
me from the first sentence and held me, riveted and breathless, to the
very last page. Gay is unflinching as she conveys the emotional,
psychological and physical devastation of Mirielle Jameson during and
following her captivity. Mirielle’s strength is the real backbone of
this novel and held me fast as I worked through the difficult scenes of
brutal treatment at the hands of her captors. This novel has me thinking
about freedom, what it affords me and what it really means to be free,
what I take for granted, and how a presumption of freedom defines my
sense of self. There’s plenty more to dig into in this book, as well:
economic disparity and dangerous assumptions on the part of both the
rich and the poor; the cultural gulf between parents and children raised
in different countries; and the power and responsibilities of love.
Just a phenomenal, unforgettable read. I can’t wait to have Roxane Gay
here to discuss the book in May.

“This powerful novel about a woman kidnapped for ransom in Haiti grabbed me from the first sentence and held me, riveted and breathless, to the very last page. Gay is unflinching as she conveys the emotional, psychological and physical devastation of Mirielle Jameson during and following her captivity. Mirielle’s strength is the real backbone of this novel and held me fast as I worked through the difficult scenes of brutal treatment at the hands of her captors. This novel has me thinking about freedom, what it affords me and what it really means to be free, what I take for granted, and how a presumption of freedom defines my sense of self. There’s plenty more to dig into in this book, as well: economic disparity and dangerous assumptions on both sides of the dollar, rich and poor; the cultural gulf between parents and children raised in different countries; and the power and responsibilities of love. Just a phenomenal, unforgettable read."