Sing, Unburied, Sing
by Jesmyn Ward
And yes, the rain continues…so I finished yet another book,
this one a gift from the President’s Office at NYU for assisting in the
selection process for the Presidential Fellows initiative. Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward is an award-winning book set in
rural, “deep south” Mississippi. This is
a beautiful story that brought tears to my eyes. Written in the voices of three characters, a grandson
(JoJo), a mother (Leonie), and a man who died at a young age (Richie, who
served in jail with JoJo’s grandfather decades ago), come together to explore
their fears and what got them to today.
Family dynamics are a very complicated thing, but add race, hate, and
the evils that become of them into the lives of one black family in the depths
of Mississippi and it’s a whole different story. Pop, JoJo’s grandfather, serves as his father
when Jojo’s real father, Michael, a white man, is imprisoned. Pop and Mam, his grandmother who suffers from
terminal cancer, have raised him and his younger sister, Kayla, while his
mother, Leonie, works (or does drugs, whichever she has the time or money to do). It is usually the evils in the past that
cloud the present, and, for this family it is the tragic death (murder) of
their son (Leonie’s brother, Given) and the death of Pop’s friend from decades
before that has this family where they are today. Ward interweaves the spirits of the past into
this haunting reality. I highly recommend this book to all. The truth of how our pasts never leave us is
front and foremost in this book.
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