Sing, Unburied, Sing in Retro Chapter Chicks

Mar 07, 2017 Candi rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary-literary, african-american

3.5 stars

Well, this was certainly an intense, beautifully written novel. I have to admit I went into this with some very high expectations, but also with a bit of reluctance. I have seen much praise lavished on this book, and deservedly so despite my lower ranking compared with many of my trusted and much-respected Goodreads friends. I also had prior knowledge of a fairly large dose of magical realism which can sometimes muddy my enjoyment of a book. However, I took the plunge, grabbed a copy, a 3.5 stars

Well, this was certainly an intense, beautifully written novel. I have to admit I went into this with some very high expectations, but also with a bit of reluctance. I have seen much praise lavished on this book, and deservedly so despite my lower ranking compared with many of my trusted and much-respected Goodreads friends. I also had prior knowledge of a fairly large dose of magical realism which can sometimes muddy my enjoyment of a book. However, I took the plunge, grabbed a copy, and immersed myself in the ugly reality of poverty, racism, drug addiction and grief.

Every major character in this book is haunted by either physical ghosts or his or her own imaginary, but all too real, demons from a troubled past. My heart bled for thirteen year old Jojo and little sister Kayla who have been all but bodily abandoned by their emotionally detached and drug addicted mother, Leonie. Raised by Mam and Pop, the children are still fortunate enough to be given a fairly healthy dose of love and compassion from these devoted grandparents. Jojo, who is forced to grow up so fast at such a tender age, admires his grandfather and aspires to emulate him and earn his respect. "I liked most of the things Pop did, liked the way he stood when he spoke, like the way he combed his hair back straight from his face and slicked it down so he looked like an Indian in the books we read in school on the Choctaw and Creek, liked the way he let me sit in his lap and drive his tractor around the back, liked the way he ate, even, fast and neat, liked the stories he told me before I went to sleep." And stories did he tell. In particular, Pop shares one story involving his time spent in the penitentiary up in Parchman. But there are holes in this story that Jojo longs to have filled in. Mam, grieving the wrongful death of her son years ago, is now on her own end-of-life journey as the cancer that once tried to claim her has now returned with a vengeance. "She’s too sick with the cancer that came and left and returned, steady as the rising and sinking of the marsh water in the bayou with the moon."

Upon hearing that Jojo and Kayla’s father, Michael, is to be freed after a three-year stint of his own up at Parchman, Leonie decides to pack up her kids to greet him on his day of release. Jesmyn Ward then takes the reader along with Leonie, a fellow junkie named Misty, and the children on a ride through Mississippi to the gates of the state penitentiary. Not only do we witness a physical drive through the state, but the remainder of the book reflects a spiritual journey as well. This is where I lost my connection with the novel. The story becomes increasingly brutal to read, with so many poor decisions on the part of the mother, the friend, and eventually the father as well. “I see dead people.” I could not get the echo of those words from M. Night Shyamalan’s 1999 movie The Sixth Sense out of my head from this point forward! I know this portion of the book wasn’t meant to sit well with the reader, but I just felt detached. Perhaps it jumped back and forth a bit too much between narrators, or perhaps it was the ghostly voices that tormented me. Much of the writing itself I found stunning, yet I can’t quite pin down what unfastened me from the narrative.

I can’t say I loved Sing, Unburied, Sing, yet I hugely appreciated it. Despite the great sense of loss and the feeling of hopelessness in the face of such hardship in a place steeped with injustice, there is yet a quality of redemption that I cannot deny as being remarkable. I just had a hard time reading it, and was not disappointed when having to set it aside frequently. I will read more of Ms. Ward’s work in the future. ...more

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Apr 28, 2019 Celia rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-read, ten-year-challenge, 52-2019, recommended-read, states, national-book-award

Jesmyn Ward is a super-talented, award winning novelist. Her latest book, Sing, Unburied, Sing, shows her ability to produce more award winners. This book, like her earlier Salvage the Bones, won the National Book Award.

This book chronicles a very poor Mississippi family: black mother, white father and a boy and girl. Mom Leonie has many problems including drug use. Her husband Michael is in jail. Her son, JoJo, is mature beyond his years. He is the one that Michaela, a toddler, turns to for 'mo ...more

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Nov 14, 2022 Theresa rated it really liked it

Shelves: dragons-spotted-in-the-wild, z-pop-sugar-2022-reading-challenge, classics-and-classic-redos, contemporary-general-fiction, ghost-story, myth-legend-fairytale

The story opens with JoJo, a 13 year old boy celebrating a birthday, living with his grandparents Pa and Mam in their house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and much younger sister Kayla. Leonie, his mother, lives there also though frequently absent and a drug addict albeit one who is holding down a job in a bar. JoJo's father, Michael, has been serving a term in Parchman Prison for making meth and on this day calls to announce his release. Leonie grabs the kids and with a friend sets off to drive The story opens with JoJo, a 13 year old boy celebrating a birthday, living with his grandparents Pa and Mam in their house on the Mississippi Gulf Coast, and much younger sister Kayla. Leonie, his mother, lives there also though frequently absent and a drug addict albeit one who is holding down a job in a bar. JoJo's father, Michael, has been serving a term in Parchman Prison for making meth and on this day calls to announce his release. Leonie grabs the kids and with a friend sets off to drive to northern Mississippi to pick him up, this journey setting the basic plot line. That journey is of course filled with incident. Other important elements are that Mam is dying of cancer, nearing the end, and members of this family have what I liken to a touch of the sight, similar to the Irish. In some members it is an ability to see into the future, in others it is hearing animals and plants talk, in others it is seeing actually ghosts, those who have died but not yet crossed over for one reason or another. And some members of the family have no extra abilities - it seems.

On its surface, this is the story of a road trip by a family to pick up the father when he is released from Parchman prison and the disruption to the family this causes. In reality it is an exploration of death and the family history that imprints each successive generation. It is also a summary of contemporary american black history and racism in the deep south, one leaving the reader uncomfortable and troubled. In fact, as I read the final pages, what came to my mind and lingers there is poet Caroline Randal Williams' Op Ed in the NYTimes on June 26, 2020: You Want a Confederate Monument? My Body is a Confederate Monument. Here in this one family we see and experience Deep South Black American History from mid-20th Century to the last decade and how it left an indelible and real legacy on each successive generation, a collective memory that never gets left behind, and thus becoming a ghost story as well.

It is also a coming of age story, for both JoJo and in a way, his mother, Leonie.

It is also just beautiful writing. Somehow, really beautiful writing describing really terrible things just makes the horror of the act or incident or language that much more horrible.

BTW, I don't see this as truly fitting Magical Realism, probably because the elements everyone seems to say make it magical realism is the presence of ghosts and psychic abilities -- and maybe the climactic final scene. To me it's just weaving a ghost story and enhanced abilities into the story.

I could not give this a full 5 stars for a couple of reasons. I found some parts confusing -- each chapter is a different point of view chapter, jumping between JoJo, Leonie and one of the ghosts. As between JoJo and Leonie, there was a name confusion that confused me far too deep into this short work (222 pages) -- JoJo refers to his baby sister as Kayla, Leonie uses Michaela her full name, for example. By the end I had it sorted out but I really think the author could have set that up a bit better in the first chapter for each character. I also had trouble keeping the time periods referenced by the different character's stories in mind. Although by the end I realized this was most likely deliberate as the author was making a point about the flow of black history being an endless river flowing from generation to generation, that there is a timelessness to it all and to this family saga. I found myself working out a timeline -- (view spoiler) and it brought home just how little had actually changed (view spoiler).

This was the first Jesmyn Ward I have read. It won't be my last. ...more

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Jul 03, 2018 Lory Sakay rated it liked it

This book was different, it held me in a way I did not expect. Ward brings the reader into a world in which nothing is predictable yet everyone behaves predictably. Her writing is different and is able to describe settings and situations concisely and with an air of simplicity. I agree with Ann Marie from Lit Wit Dine when she says in her review, "I appreciated the author's ability to convey such emotion without writing in an way that could be considered melodramatic. She tells the story in a re ...more

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Oct 14, 2017 Bianca rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: borrowed-from-library, audiobook

Tragically beautiful, part odyssey part ghost story this heart wrenching tale goes between a drug addled mother and her bi racial son as they and his little sister travel to pick up their father from prison. Ms. Ward tackling of police brutality, racism, poverty, and addition in this story were at times so raw and powerful it left me near to tears towards the end.
Reading this, with Pop and his storytelling, reminded me of a moment with my grandmother. When my mother was talking me and a cousin ...more

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