Sing, Unburied, Sing

Sing, Unburied, Sing

Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I found Ward’s The Men We Reap very moving, and had high hopes for Sing, Unburied, Sing. This story of a family attempting to put itself back together follows the teenaged Jojo and his mother, Leonie, as they collect Michael, Jojo’s father and Leonie’s boyfriend, from prison. Jojo is old beyond his years, and Leonie is for some reason stuck in a permanent state of fractured childhood—she wants to be a better person, but can’t seem to ever see outside of herself. Pop and Mam are the grandparents who provide the backbone of the family, and they’re the ones providing Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, with a home and food and the example of adults who’ve learned to navigate a cruel, difficult world. Leonie’s desire for wholeness is palpable, which makes the story all the more heartbreaking when it eludes her best efforts. I found the spirit world and the nature lyricism a little taxing at points—the mysticism gets a little thick—but overall it’s a beautiful story of a terrible world.



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