Where the Line Bleeds

By Jesmyn Ward

Book Overview

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 drugs. He can hide it from his grandmother but not his twin, and the two grow increasingly estranged. Christophe's downward spiral is accelerated first by crack, then by the reappearance of the twins' parents: Cille, who abandoned them, and Sandman, a creepy, predatory addict. Sandman taunts Christophe, eventually provoking a shocking confrontation that will ultimately damn or save both twins. Ward inhabits these characters, and this world -- black Creole, poor, and drug-riddled, yet shored by family and community-- to a rare degree, without a trace of irony or distance.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1932841385
• ISBN13: 9781932841381
• Release Date: November 2008
• Publisher: Agate Bolden
• Length: 241 Pages
• Weight: 0.82 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Good Book

This book is about Christophe and Joshua who are fraternal twins. They live in rural Southern Mississippi on the Gulf Coast. They were abandoned by their parents, and they live with their grandmother. They are both faced with having to take care of themselves after graduating high school. They are poor, and the economy is bad. Especially after a hurricane. The twins have things in common with each other, but also things that are different.

Growing

Being young and in the south, this is a tale of twins and how they are alike and different. How the lives of these two are similar and yet to the point of not.

Jesmyn Ward's "Where the Line Bleeds"

"Where the Line Bleeds" by Jesmyn Ward is very intriguing novel that paints a very vivid picture of the struggle of two young, black fraternal twins, Christophe and Joshua, who are graduating from high school and are trying to find their way as adults. Abandoned by both their mother, Cille, and their addict father, Sandman, the twins were raised by thier grandmother. The novel illustrates the hardships that the twins endure living in a poor, rural town, with very little opportunities for them. Not only does she embed an eloquent picture in your mind, but also with her fierce descriptions, Jesmyn keeps you engaged in the novel from beginning to end. With action, humor, and a sense of mystery included, this novel truly does not lack in any area. I definitely recommend "Where the Line Bleeds" to everyone!

An Absorbing and Gritty Portrait

I really enjoyed Where the Line Bleeds. This book is about choices made growing up in a poor part of America. Christophe and Joshua are fraternal twins, fresh out of high school. When the story opens, they are ready to seek jobs. The future is unclear, if wide open. They are surrounded with family members whose own lives are either guideposts or hazards. Their father, Sandman, is largely absent because of addiction to drugs. Their mother has left for Atlanta and a series of decent jobs working retail. She provides the brothers with material needs, but she is woefully absent as a caregiver. Instead, the twins are really cared for by their grandmother, Ma-Mee, and a cousin, Dunny. Sandman, in particular, is a strong character. Easily he is one of the most pitiable figures in a book that I have read in a long time. For the author to make a person who is an absentee father and an addict into such a person takes a lot of doing. He is a ghost to the reader for a while, but by the end, I felt bad for him. This book has a strong sense of place. It is set in a small town on the shore line of the Mississippi River. There is not a lot of opportunity in Bois Sauvage, or even in its sister community of St. Catherine's, where the white families live. The soil is full of clay. You need 10 acres to grow enough, so back when it was an agricultural community for African-Americans retreating from New Orleans, the people settled in a very spread out fashion. It is after Katrina. The economy is limited. The port has good jobs. Most jobs are in gas stations or fast food, though. It was that sense of place that made me like this book so much. There is a lot of detail here that testifies to a way of life: what to get at the store if you want to boil shrimp, the code of conduct among kids playing pick-up basketball, the joy of wearing a nice outfit on the Fourth of July.

One shared history, two paths to the future

"Where the Line Bleeds" is an intriguing story that looks at fraternal twin brothers, who though they have shared a womb, share very little besides that. Joshua and Christopher pursue drastically different paths - one a straight-laced, hard worker; the other making his mark on the street. These brothers respond extremely differently to a life without the loving guidance of a mother or father. The author presents may sides to the tale, making it an intriguing read with a little something for many readers.