I haven’t read Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward’s earlier novel, though it’s been on my to-read list since it first came out, so this was my first experience with Ward’s writing. Sing, Unburied, Sing is a novel both beautiful and terrible, heartbreaking yet optimistic, and grittily realistic while tinged with magical realism. It’s a family story but one where the history of race, poverty, and violence is close to the surface. Jojo lives with his grandparents, Pop and Mam, while his mother, Leonie, hovers around […]
Sometimes, the world don’t give you what you need, no matter how hard you look
I dread writing this review. I hated this book. I’ll just get that out of the way. Hated it. Yet I hesitate. How can I eviscerate a book that contains lines like this: ‘Come on, son,’ Pop says. When he begins walking toward the house, I follow, trying to leave the memory of Leonie and Michael fighting outside, floating like fog in the damp, chilly day. But it follows, even as I follow the trail of tender organ blood Pop has left in the dirt, […]
Ghosts on the Gulf Coast
Sing, Unburied, Sing is the story of three generations of a black family in a fictitious town on the Mississippi coast, told from three perspectives. Jojo is a biracial 13-year-old boy living with his grandparents, his mother and his young sister. He idolizes his grandfather but only tolerates his mother, who leaves him with the responsibility of caring for 3-year-old Michaela. His mother, Leonie, soothes her pains with drugs while she waits for her white boyfriend (and Jojo and Michaela’s father) to get out of […]
My favorite book of 2017
Hello, favorite and best book of 2017. This is a book that needs to be shouted from the rooftops, because it crawls into your bones and won’t release you from its spell. Jesmyn Ward is a magnificent writer, as I discovered when I devoured Salvage the Bones. I’d heard that her newest novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing was short-listed for the National Book Award, so I grudgingly added to my library holds list, interrupting my read-the-books-on-my-shelf project once again. And what a worthy interruption. This is […]
My last review of 2017: a stark end to a stark year – Sing, Unburied, Sing
Firstly, let me toot my horn for a moment. I set a goal this year to read 34 books and this is my 34th review. (Insert trumpeting sounds). Huzzah! Now, on to the book. I saw this book posted on the CBR Facebook page as part of a combo review of book award winners from a fellow Cannonballer. During a brief stop into the library I saw it on the new books shelf and though I did not judge a book by its cover I […]
A gorgeous and devastating read
I’m toying around with a New Orleans/hurricane themed course, whether in first-year writing or an upper-division humanities course. I’ve been trying to think about books that would be relevant, both fiction and nonfiction. Several people had already recommended Jesmyn Ward’s Salvage the Bones to me before, and with her new book garnering National Book Award buzz, I thought it might be time to give it a try. Esch is our protagonist. She’s fifteen, motherless, and pregnant. She is jockeying for family position amongst wild and […]