Sing, Unburied, Sing

Sing, Unburied, Sing by author Jesmyn Ward tells the story of the struggles of an African American family in modern day rural Mississippi. Thirteen-year-old Jojo and his sister, Kayla, are being raised by their grandparents. Their grandmother is in the last stages of cancer and their grandfather (Pop) is coping with the farm while caring for her and the kids. Their mother, Leonie, addicted to methamphetamines, drops in and out of their lives. Their white father is about to be released from prison and Leonie decides to take the two children along to meet him resulting in a road trip marked by the presence of another addict, Kayla's car sickness, unexpected and unwanted side trips, and Jojo's constant alertness to any dangers as well as show more protection of his toddler sister from their mother's seeming indifference to their needs.

It is no surprise that Sing, Unburied Sing won the National Book Award for Fiction and was named as one of the top books of 2017. It is a beautifully written novel with lyrical prose and complex and interesting characters. The narration is split between Jojo and Leonie and later in the book, Richie, a ghost from Pop's past. Jojo is certainly the most likeable of these characters but Leonie is, by far, the most complex - on the surface, she is selfish and needy and indifferent to anyone but Michael, her white lover, and often showing almost hatred towards Jojo who, in turn, dislikes and distrusts her. But in her internal dialogue, we see a more nuanced character, one who has never gotten over the death of her brother; who knows that her actions and reactions to her son are wrong; who is willing to take an action that will aid her mother, knowing how it will likely look to the rest of the family; and who is aware of her obsession for Michael and wishes she were able to give just a little of that love to her children but knows that she can't. This is also a tale about how memory and the past colours the presence, that the dead are never fully gone from our lives but are rather there 'pulling the weight of history behind them'. These ghosts of the past are there in Pop's stories about his time in the notorious Parchman prison and what happened to Richie, something that remains a mystery until the very end of the story; in Leonie's inability to let go of what happened to her brother; in the actual ghosts that Jojo, Kayla, and Leonie can see; and in the road trip which makes it clear that the injustices and inequalities of the past has never gone away even if we want to believe they have. show less

Leonie would like to be a good mother, but she just is not able to. Luckily her two kids Jojo and the toddler Kayla are mainly raised by her parents, Mam and Pop. But now, Mam is in the stadium of cancer and her days are numbered. Additionally, Michael, the kid’s father, is going to be released from prison after three years behind the bars. Leonie is still in love with he, even though Michael’s family hates her, especially his father does not want the black woman in a white man’s house. And not to forget, it was Michael’s family who is responsible for Leonie’s brother’s death. Nevertheless, Leonie takes her kids and her best friend to make a trip to collect Michael. Jojo would prefer to stay with his Mam and Pop, but he is show more too young to defy his mother. And he has a task to accomplish which can only be done by someone who can listen.

Jesmyn Ward, winner of the 2011 National Book Award for Fiction, portrays in “Sing, Unburied, Sing” a family at the point of collapsing. Her description of Leonie, the mother who just isn’t a mother, is heart-breaking and upsetting. At times, you just want to slap her and shout at her to take care of her children and of herself. To forget about the good-for-nothing father of her children and his racist family. Her twelve-year-old son not only has to parent the toddler, but also throughout the story seems to be much more mature than his mother and remarkably more reasonable and wiser. The only solace when it comes to the kids is the fact that their grand-parents are fond of them and raise them with tenderness and affection. It is hard to read about such a mother, but, on the other hand, it seems to be very realistic. These women who always dream of a better life with the man they love and ignore the painful reality do exist, if we like it or not.

Apart from the outstanding character-painting, Ward’ novel plays with the supernatural. Yet, it is not that unbelievable fictitious creation of fantasy, much more does she derive her idea from some kind of pagan or religious belief in forces beyond our recognition that only the specially gifted can see or hear. Within the family, the blood of the super sensitive seems to run since Mam, Leonie and the kids can obviously communicate with those in the world between the living and the dead. Narrated like this, this seems to be a bit strange and unrealistic, the author, however, integrates this idea in a remarkable way which makes you accept it as a normal part of life and genuine fact.

All in all, a novel which can persuade with the strong characters and a poetic style of writing which affects you deeply. show less

No author makes me feel what Jesmyn Ward makes me feel. This is a beautiful and heartbreaking novel, and because of the quality of her writing, I feel like I'm watching it unfold in real time. I see these characters, I see Parchman, I see Bois. I see Leonie struggling with drugs and Jojo comforting Kayla. I see the ghosts of the dead men.

Here's the thing. Jesmyn Ward is so damn talented I would follow her anywhere. I'm so glad I went to see her speak and have her sign my copy of the novel while I embarrassingly gushed to her. She's really one of the best writers of our generation.

What a beautiful mesmerizing lyrical novel! It is set in a fictional small town in Mississippi where race relations are incredibly stilted. It involves 3 generations of a family and is told from 3 different perspectives. Jojo is an incredibly warm and affecting narrator, who at 13 looks up to his grandparents, Pop and Mam, but regards his own parents as useless and potentially harmful. He is the one who is most attentive and kind to Kayla, his 3 year old sister. Leonie, the second narrator, is Jojo and Kayla’s mother. Between her drug addiction and her emotionally and physically volatile relationship with Michael (the white father of her children), she has no room left in her heart for kindness or love towards her children. The third show more narrator is Richie, the young boy sentenced to Parchman Farm at the age of 13 for stealing food to feed his family. He served at the same time as Pop. Pop only went to Parchman alongside his brother who had struck a white person in the face. Pop tells many stories about his time at Parchman and Richie, but the story of Ritchie’s death is one that he hasn’t told Jojo and a story that Ritchie’s ghost needs to hear.

This story takes place over several days, involving a road trip to Parchman State Penitentiary to pick up Michael who is being released. Leonie brings along Misty, Jojo and Kayla for the ride. It is a tension packed several days which serve to highlight the race relations in the south, the affect of drugs on families, and the extreme difficulty of growing up as a black male in this area. There are ghosts that appear in this novel: Richie as well as Given. Given was Leonie’s brother who died at the hands of Michael’s cousin. It was a reckless, senseless murder that was covered up by the town and local law enforcement.

This book is an incredible read. The writing is beautiful, seeming almost like poetry. The juxtaposition between the thoughts of the characters and the actual words that come out is done so well. This set up of the story taking place only over a few days creates enormous tension. The characters became so well developed that you felt you had known them a lifetime. This is not the type of book to have a sequel, but if it did, I would pick it up in a heartbeat to find out what becomes of Jojo and Kayla. I highly recommend this moving, beautiful piece of literature!

For discussion questions, please see: http://www.book-chatter.com/?p=3139. show less

Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, are being raised by their mother's parents on a small farm in southern Mississippi. Their mother (Leonie) ostensibly lives with them, too, but her drug addiction and selfish ways make her an unreliable presence and a mean one at that. With the bedridden Mam (the grandmother) slowly dying of cancer and Pop (the grandfather) doing his best to teach Jojo how to be a decent grown man, Jojo is torn between acquiescing to his mother's demand that he and Kayla go with her on her road trip to pick up their father, who has just been released from prison, and doing what he really wants, which is to stay home with his grandparents. In the end, he and Kayla, whom Jojo is essentially parenting on his own, go with show more their mother. The resulting road trip is full of potential dangers, stupid and selfish decisions on Leonie's part, and complicated family dynamics. Along with this main story, we get parallel narratives of Pop's past experiences in the same prison farm that Jojo's dad is in, and the history of Leonie's brother, who was lynched by a group of white boys that included Jojo's father's cousin. There's also an element of the supernatural here, with the ghosts of both Leonie's brother and Pop's friend, who died at the prison farm, making themselves felt by certain inhabitants of the road trip car.

I'm wholly surprised by how much I liked this novel, since normally the genre is too bleak for me. And this one is plenty grim in its own way, but told in a manner that makes the story itself overpower that darkness. Leonie in any other story would have been enough for me to throw the (audio)book across the room and quit - I can't stand bad mothers; they make me so smad - but my need to know how Jojo's and Pop's stories ended kept me intrigued enough to just make a face at Leonie and keep listening. Her complexities help here, too - she's not just a shitty, drug-addicted parent; she's a product of her circumstances as much as of her bad choices. But even more than the story itself, the writing held me entranced. Gorgeous, gorgeous prose, even when it's Leonie's ugly thoughts we're witnessing. I'll certainly be back for more Ward. show less

I was so immersed in this book. I listen to the audio while reading the physical book, and it just hit. This book could have been 10,000 pages and I would have read it. I just wanted to stay in this world with these people and hear their thoughts and see what happened to Jojo and Kayla. I can see why this book won awards. It hit on so many relevant topics. And how this family related to each other sometimes made you laugh, cry, feel bad, feel jealous. All of the things. This story changes perspective between Jojo and his mom, and so a third character Richie (who is a ghost). [Spolier] the ghost perspective started probably about halfway through the book. At first it was kind of weird but I kind of went with it. There were talks earlier show more in the book about how ma'am had special abilities, but not talking to ghosts. And the mom could only do it when she was high. But Jojo and Kayla seem to have the ability to see and talk to ghosts. It definitely added another dimension to the story. The car ride was definitely hard. The mom and Jojo and Kayla and one of their mom's friends took a ride to go get their dad out of prison. And just the neglect on the mom's part, making sure that her children had food to eat, was just not a priority for her. And when they decided to bring the kids to his parents house, that was just awful that somebody can say that to somebody else's face. Literally heartbreaking. This is the first book that I've ever listened to the audio while following along with the book, I feel like this was a perfect book to start doing that. Looking forward to reading other books by this author. show less

Set in rural Mississippi, this novel focuses on a mixed-race family: thirteen-year-old Jojo, his younger sister Kayla, their drug-addicted mother Leonie, their white father Michael, and their grandparents, Pop and Mam. Leonie and her children, along with friend Misty, travel by car to Parchman Farm (the Mississippi State Penitentiary) to retrieve recently released Michael. During the journey, we learn several ways this family is dysfunctional. Jojo must act as a parent to his sister due to Leonie’s drug addiction and general unfitness as a mother. Michael comes from a racist family, and they have never accepted Leonie, which has of course impacted Jojo.

We also learn about Mam, a healer with a deep connection to nature, who is now show more dying of cancer. Leonie often hallucinates the ghost of her brother, Given, who died from racially motivated violence. The narrative is interwoven with flashbacks to Pop’s experiences at Parchman years ago, where he witnessed the death of a black youth, Richie, whose ghost becomes one of the central figures.

The perspective alternates primarily between Jojo and Leonie. It is a very sad and beautifully written novel. Through her characters, Jesmyn Ward addresses larger social issues, such as systemic racism, poverty, and the cycles of trauma. I know some are not fans of magical realism, but here it serves an important purpose. For example, I do not think it would have worked as well if the violence encountered by Richie and Given happened instead to one of the main living family members. The ghostly presences reflect the weight of memory, giving a voice to those who have been silenced.

This book is a powerful story of a fractured family with deep scars. At its core it is about the ways in which love, pain, and memory shape the lives of individuals and families. I have read other books by Jesmyn Ward, but none has touched me as deeply as this one. It will surely become a literary classic (if it isn’t already). show less