Be comfortable with being uncomfortable. An Untamed State is a beautifully written novel that depicts the worst kinds of brutality.

Roxane Gay, Haitian-American author of Bad Feminist, paints a literary portrait of class struggle and cultural identity crisis in her latest work of fiction. In Bad Feminist, Gay uses her essays to create an important distinction between the ideals of a movement and the individual personalities of the people who make up that movement. Similarly, Gay’s novel highlights the contrast between the perceptions of a particular culture and the actual experiences of the individuals in that culture.

That culture in question is the Haitian culture. Being a Haitian-American myself, I am both thankful and impressed by how accurately and emotionally Gay captures the nuances of Haitian culture and identity in An Untamed State. Yes, this novel—the characters and the setting and the style—is distinctly Haitian. That said, the themes explored are universal—crisis of identity and self-discovery, complex familial relationships, class warfare, bigotry, and the nature of evil—and accessible to anyone.

Sebastien Duval is a skilled engineer, who, after carving a successful career in the Midwest of the United States, has returned to Haiti, becoming the owner of lucrative construction company. Mireille Duval Jameson is Sebastien’s daughter and the protagonist. She is a lawyer in Miami, visiting her parents’ palatial compound in Haiti.

She is both Haitian and American, both elite and foreigner, yet she is not fully accepted or understood by either culture. Neither does she fully understand how her unlikely upbringing creates distance between her and the people from both cultures, and makes her a target of resentment. Not until, she is forcefully snatched away from her Midwestern farm-raised husband, Michael, and their infant son, Christophe, while leaving her family’s compound for a beach holiday.

While her father dispassionately engages in negotiations with her kidnappers, Mireille must withstand unspeakable torture for nearly two weeks. Her journey raises complicated questions about loyalty abandonment, depravity, and the root causes of lawlessness. Throughout the entirety of her ordeal, Mireille endures a variety of emotions but maintains a resolute mettle. Her defiance and courage in the face of ruthless violence mirrors that of generations of Haitian individuals in the face of Haiti’s own harrowing history of tragedy and anarchy as a “free and independent nation state.”

[author] [author_image timthumb=’on’]http://minotaursspotlight.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/Argyle-headshot.jpg[/author_image] [author_info] Born in Haiti. Reared in Brockton, MA. Matured in Philadelphia. Schimri Yoyo is an educator in the Philadelphia public school system who thinks in numbers, but communicates in narrative. He has completed a MFA in Creative Writing from Arcadia University. He lives in Philadelphia with his wife Becky and his son Schimri Neil and daughter Ciela Reneé.[/author_info] [/author]