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A review by dsuttles
An Untamed State by Roxane Gay
5.0
There are a few books I've read in my lifetime which have just been so excruciatingly painful I've almost had to put them down. Beloved and In the Time of the Butterflies are two examples. An Untamed State is another. You don't just read a chapter, set the book down, and move on with your daily life. At least not for me. I was so emotionally involved in Mireille's journey, I literally got nightmares.
But it's not just the subject matter that makes this story intense. There are a lot of gruesome tales out there about kidnapping and rape and murder that are meant to simultaneously shock, thrill and disgust -- sensationalist stuff, both in fiction and in the news, that is meant to elicit gasps from its readers. That's not how this story operates.
In An Untamed State, there is something very human and very real that eviscerates you. Mireille's pain is your pain. Mireille's thoughts are your thoughts. You go along with her for this journey and it is not easy for either of you. You both come up hollow and empty. You both are desperately trying to feel whole. You stop thinking you can be. You try again. You continue.
The great moral of the story is NOT about the beauty of human persistence or the will to survive. Rather, life is effed up. People are effed up. We are all animals, wild at our core, but animals with choices. These choices matter. There are hard truths and soft truths. There are things that are wrong no matter how you look at them. Feelings are complicated, but also valid. Little else matters in this world, if anything, without empathy. Have empathy.
Ultimately, this is a story about what it means to be alive vs. whole. Indelibly powerful.
But it's not just the subject matter that makes this story intense. There are a lot of gruesome tales out there about kidnapping and rape and murder that are meant to simultaneously shock, thrill and disgust -- sensationalist stuff, both in fiction and in the news, that is meant to elicit gasps from its readers. That's not how this story operates.
In An Untamed State, there is something very human and very real that eviscerates you. Mireille's pain is your pain. Mireille's thoughts are your thoughts. You go along with her for this journey and it is not easy for either of you. You both come up hollow and empty. You both are desperately trying to feel whole. You stop thinking you can be. You try again. You continue.
The great moral of the story is NOT about the beauty of human persistence or the will to survive. Rather, life is effed up. People are effed up. We are all animals, wild at our core, but animals with choices. These choices matter. There are hard truths and soft truths. There are things that are wrong no matter how you look at them. Feelings are complicated, but also valid. Little else matters in this world, if anything, without empathy. Have empathy.
Ultimately, this is a story about what it means to be alive vs. whole. Indelibly powerful.