Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward
For the month of September, all chapters of the Girly Book Club are reading Jesmyn Ward’s Sing, Buried, Sing (Scribner). Here’s the review that BookTrib filed shortly after the title was published late last year:
Sing, Unburied, Sing is a beautifully written, character-driven, heartfelt novel that takes place in the steamy Mississippi Gulf Coast. The story is about a young black girl, Leonie, who has two children: Jojo 13, and Kayla, a toddler. The children’s father, Michael, is white and in prison. Michael’s family is hopelessly racist and rejects Leonie and the children, so they live with Leonie’s parents.
Leonie is a drug addict and she is rarely around, so Mam and Pop have stepped in to raise the kids. However, Mam is dying of cancer and a broken heart due to her son’s death and spends all of her time in bed, and Pop is quiet, strong, and teaches Jojo what he can around the farm.
Jojo is brave; he takes care of his little sister Kayla with love and care, despite his mother’s neglect as a parental role model. When Michael is released from prison, Leonie takes her reluctant children away from their grandparents, on a road trip with her friend, Misty, to pick up drugs and then the children’s father.
Throughout the novel, we learn about Pop’s time spent in the penitentiary and the horrific details that pepper his past. We see how his daughter, Leonie, is selfish, neglectful, bitter and struggles with addiction. We witness Jojo being able to communicate with the dead. These rich characters evoke so much emotion, hope and despair, and I enjoyed my increased understanding of them as they became whole through Jesmyn Ward’s prose.
Ward shows us that the course of our life is not just based on our current existence, relationships, choices and our future potential but also includes our past and how its impact weighs on us. In addition to these living characters in Sing, Unburied, Sing, there is the ghost of Leonie’s dead brother, Given, who she sees when she is on drugs, and Richie, the young boy Pop failed to save when he was in jail as a younger man, who Jojo sees and helps as he searches for answers about his own death.
I really did love this story of love, protection, race and family in the face of poverty down south. The lines between past and present, death and the living, and hate and love are great references, and the characters often hover between them. Jesmyn Ward does an artful job putting a spotlight on the injustices life may bring and I highly recommend this book.
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