''An Untamed State'' is the
debut novel of writer
Roxane Gay, first published in 2014 by
Grove Atlantic.
Plot
Mireille Duval Jameson is born and raised in the United States, her parents are from
Haiti
Haiti (; ht, Ayiti ; French: ), officially the Republic of Haiti (); ) and formerly known as Hayti, is a country located on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles archipelago of the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and ...
an descent. Her parents move back to Haiti. While vacationing at her parents' house with her husband and child in Haiti, she is kidnapped. When her father, who by now has become a wealthy Haitian developer, refuses to pay her ransom, she is gang-raped and tortured by her captors, who keep her imprisoned for 13 days before finally releasing her.
"Happily Ever After"
In the first portion of the book, called "Happily Ever After," the novel moves back and forth in time between Mireille's captivity and her earlier life, meeting and falling in love with husband Michael during graduate school in the
Midwest
The Midwestern United States, also referred to as the Midwest or the American Midwest, is one of four Census Bureau Region, census regions of the United States Census Bureau (also known as "Region 2"). It occupies the northern central part of ...
of the United States.
"Once Upon a Time"
The latter section of the novel, "Once Upon a Time," follows Mireille in the aftermath of her
trauma, including her time living with Michael's mother, Lorraine, on the family farm in
Nebraska.
Themes
Commentary on ''An Untamed State'' frequently cites the novel's emphasis on
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
. Reviewing the novel for the ''
Los Angeles Times'', Chris Daley suggests the fairy tale theme serves to translate unspeakable trauma: "Written from Mireille's perspective, 'An Untamed State' is an account of what is normally unaccountable: a level of trauma that, even if it is survived, is often too painful to relate. From the first sentence, we know Mireille has found a way to craft her story to make it bearable. She frames it as a fairy tale: 'Once upon a time, in a far-off land, I was kidnapped'".
In the ''New York Times'',
Holly Bass
Holly Bass is a Washington, D.C., Washington DC-based performance artist, poet, dancer, arts educator and cultural activist.
Education
Bass studied modern dance (under Viola Farber) and also creative writing at Sarah Lawrence College (Class o ...
said in contrast to contemporary, happy-ending-focused fairy tales, Gay's interpretation of the genre recalled "the real horrors of the original
Brothers Grimm stories and their ilk ... that a passing stranger raped
Sleeping Beauty as she lay unconscious, or that
Snow White's jealous stepmother not only called for her death but wanted to eat her liver and lungs. Roxane Gay's striking debut novel, 'An Untamed State,' is a fairy tale in this vein, its complex and fragile moral arrived at through great pain and high cost."
Reception
Reviews
''An Untamed State'' received positive reviews upon publication. Nolan Feeney writing for ''
Time'' called it a "riveting debut" that "captivates from its opening sentence and doesn't let go." The ''Los Angeles Times'' called it "suspenseful, immediate and realistic."
''
The A.V. Club'' awarded it an A letter grade and praised it as "a gripping psychological portrait of how trauma remakes the body to respond only to itself."
Awards
Gay was nominated for an
NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work, Fiction in 2015 for ''An Untamed State''.
Adaptation
In March 2016 director
Gina Prince-Bythewood announced she would be adapting the novel into a feature film for
Fox Searchlight. Prince-Bythewood and Gay will co-write the film, to star
Gugu Mbatha-Raw. Prince-Bythewood will direct and will also produce with
Michael De Luca.
Prince-Bythewood and Mbatha-Raw previously collaborated on ''
Beyond the Lights''.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Untamed State
2014 American novels
Novels set in Haiti
Gang rape in fiction
Grove Atlantic books
Literature by African-American women
2014 debut novels