Where the Line Bleeds

( 2 )

All Available Formats + Editions

——

$10.05

NOOK Book

——

$10.05

Where the Line Bleeds (eBook) Pub. Date: 3/1/2009 Publisher: Agate Publishing
$0.99

$11.49

Paperback

$0.99

$11.49

Where the Line Bleeds Pub. Date: 11/1/2008 Publisher: Agate Publishing
——

$24.89

Audiobook

——

$24.89

Where the Line Bleeds (MP3 - Unabridged) Pub. Date: 6/1/2010 Publisher: Recorded Books, LLC

Customers Who Bought This Also Bought

Advertising

Overview

"Set in a rural town on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, Where the Line Bleeds tells the story of fraternal twins Joshua and Christophe, who are graduating from high school as the novel begins. The two boys both anticipate and dread their lives as adults. Joshua finds a job working as a dock laborer on the Gulf of Mexico, unloading cargo. But Christophe has less luck: Unable to find a job, and desperate to alleviate his family's poverty, he starts to sell drugs. Joshua does not approve, but his clumsy concern fractures the twins' relationship. When their long-missing addict father reappears, he provokes a shocking confrontation between himself and the brothers - one that will ultimately damn or save them." Where the Line Bleeds is unforgettable for the intense clarity of how the main relationships are rendered: the love but growing tension between the twins; their devotion to the slowly failing grandmother who raised them, and the sense of obligation they feel toward her; and most of all, the alternating pain, bewilderment, anger, and yearning they feel for the parents who abandoned them - their mother for a new life in the big city of Atlanta, and their father for drugs, prison, and even harsher debasements.

Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly

Impoverished twins living along the Mississippi Gulf Coast struggle to survive after high school in Ward's starkly beautiful debut. Abandoned by their mother and raised by their loving but ailing grandmother, Joshua and Christophe DeLisle know job prospects are slim in rural Bois Sauvage, so they spend their days playing basketball and flirting with the local girls. Eventually, even with no work history, Joshua is hired to work on the docks, but Christophe falls in with the brothers' drug-dealing cousin. Too ashamed to admit that he spends his days in the park selling marijuana, Christophe secretly contributes to the family's expenses with regular "deposits" to his grandmother's purse. But when Christophe decides to start selling more dangerous drugs, tensions between the twins grow, and the arrival of their long-absent drug addict father sparks a violent confrontation. A fresh new voice in American literature, Ward unflinchingly describes a world full of despair but not devoid of hope. (Nov.)

School Library Journal

Adult/High School

African-American twins Joshua and Christophe graduate from high school and try to find jobs. While Joshua has success becoming a dockworker, Christophe is less fortunate and desperation eventually finds him turning to drug dealing. The teens are loyal to their grandmother, who raised them after their mother moved to Atlanta to start a new life and their addict father disappeared. While this plot (and the book's cover) may be reminiscent of an urban fiction title, the setting is unique-rural Mississippi-and the writing is distinctive. Ward's beautiful language allows the location and characters to come alive, while her dialogue, written in a Southern vernacular, adds further texture. The plot is as leisurely as a hot Mississippi summer day, and although not much happens until the somewhat violent and surprising ending, this fully realized character study will appeal to teens who can see themselves here or who are interested in discovering realities far from their own lives.-Jamie Watson, Harford County Public Library, MD

More Reviews (1) Fewer Reviews

Kirkus Reviews

Blues on the bayou, and blood to boot. The piney woods of southern Mississippi aren't much of a place. Everyone knows everyone's business, nobody has enough to do, and in between hurricanes there's only trouble to get into. Ward's first novel opens with Christophe and Joshua DeLisle, fraternal twins, preparing to jump into the swirling waters of a muddy river-to cool off, not to kill themselves. It's a portentous moment, for just as each will jump differently, so will their lives take a different course. Caring for an ailing grandmother and just out of high school, the boys are holding their own in this backwater world until temptation presents itself: Joshua finds himself with some folding money after finding a job on the wharves, Christophe with yet more folding money after he takes up selling a little weed after not finding licit work. Danger insinuates itself in the form of the boys' long-absent father, a bad actor with a mean drug habit who likes stronger blends than Christophe has to sell, and the story thenceforth takes turns that can be seen coming from a long way off. Ward's plotting is predictable, but her story is closely observed, full of telling details: "Christophe had fallen asleep in the middle of counting his money, and was stretched out with his arms thrown over his head as if he had been surprised, his mouth open, the bills ragged and bunched underneath him." The author, a native of the Mississippi coast, serves up a world that has been little depicted: the rural African-American South, a place of grinding poverty but enduring loyalties, tragic but somehow noble at the same time. A promising debut.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781932841381
Publisher: Agate Publishing
Publication date: 11/1/2008
Pages: 230
Sales rank: 130,852
Product dimensions: 8.98 (w) x 5.84 (h) x 0.79 (d)

Customer Reviews

Average Rating 4.5

( 2 )

Rating Distribution

5 Star

(1)

4 Star

(1)

3 Star

(0)

2 Star

(0)

1 Star

(0)

Your Rating:

Review Guidelines

Tell the world what you think of this product.

Add Recommendations

Your Name: Create a Pen Name or Leave Anonymously

Barnes & Noble.com Review Rules

Our reader reviews allow you to share your comments on titles you liked, or didn't, with others. By submitting an online review, you are representing to Barnes & Noble.com that all information contained in your review is original and accurate in all respects, and that the submission of such content by you and the posting of such content by Barnes & Noble.com does not and will not violate the rights of any third party. Please follow the rules below to help ensure that your review can be posted.

Reviews by Our Customers Under the Age of 13

We highly value and respect everyone's opinion concerning the titles we offer. However, we cannot allow persons under the age of 13 to have accounts at BN.com or to post customer reviews. Please see our Terms of Use for more details.

What to exclude from your review:

Please do not write about reviews, commentary, or information posted on the product page. If you see any errors in the information on the product page, please send us an email.

Reviews should not contain any of the following:

- HTML tags, profanity, obscenities, vulgarities, or comments that defame anyone
- Time-sensitive information such as tour dates, signings, lectures, etc.
- Single-word reviews. Other people will read your review to discover why you liked or didn't like the title. Be descriptive.
- Comments focusing on the author or that may ruin the ending for others
- Phone numbers, addresses, URLs
- Pricing and availability information or alternative ordering information
- Advertisements or commercial solicitation

Reminder:

- By submitting a review, you grant to Barnes & Noble.com and its sublicensees the royalty-free, perpetual, irrevocable right and license to use the review in accordance with the Barnes & Noble.com Terms of Use.
- Barnes & Noble.com reserves the right not to post any review -- particularly those that do not follow the terms and conditions of these Rules. Barnes & Noble.com also reserves the right to remove any review at any time without notice.
- See Terms of Use for other conditions and disclaimers.

OOSA

Posted March 1, 2009

more from this reviewer

Brotherly Love

Jesmyn Ward has written a hopeful novel. The very vivid descriptions coupled with the deep connections shared by fraternal twins, Joshua and Christophe, makes it feel as if you're apart of the story. WHERE THE LINE BLEEDS, admittedly, is slow at times, but, Ms. Ward's precision of the Mississippi dialogue and the dysfunction of the family keeps the book buoyant. Whereas I believe that some readers will find the book complicated, I believe that Ward has provided readers with a pleasant read. I recommend this book to serious readers only!

Reviewed by: Peaches
3.5 stars

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.
FrJon

Posted February 9, 2009

The Meaningful Life in the Rural South

Jesmyn Ward has captured the life of a rural South that we rarely hear about. It is an atmosphere with which she is eminently familiar. The characterizations are superb; the plot engaging and the resolution satisfying. Ms. Ward is a product of the locale in Mississippi about which she writes, and she treats the characters and situations familiarly and with great sensitivity.
Both the hope and despair which predominates the life of a black Southern young man in our post-integration days is present at all times throughout the novel. The fates of the two young protagonists seems almost predestined, and their own reactions and the reactions of their other family members are well-wrought.
Ms. Ward is a promising young writer with a vast and fruitful future in front of her. One can only wait patiently for her to produce another masterpiece.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.

If you find inappropriate content, please report it to Barnes & Noble