Sing, Unburied, Sing
*****
By:
Jesmyn Ward
I
always love reading books set in the South. This book is a wonderful
example of how a great writer can capture the soul of the South and
bring it to life. This book is set in the Mississippi Delta and Gulf
Coast. Being from Mississippi herself, the author is able to
poetically and passionately describe the Mississippi Delta and Coast
in all it's true character. The South is something that just lives
deep in your heart and even if you leave, you'll never get the South
out of your heart or mind.
The
author is able to capture with words, the soul of Mississippi of
decades past – the land, the poverty, the racism of the past that
is so hard to be left in the past, the southern folklore, the strong
spirituality of the African-American “healer”, the ghosts and
spirits that are all around us, seen, heard and felt only by those
with the “gift”.
We
are taken through the history of rural Mississippi to times and
places that aren't nice or pretty, but through a harsh reality for
many.
{Can
I please tell the “Yankees” reading the book that ALL of
Mississippi is not this way, nor ever was}
The
book is set in rural Mississippi, in poverty, where the black
grandparents are raising their 2 biracial grandchildren. They are
the only strength, family stability and love these children have.
River
- “Pop” the grandfather, is a quiet but very strong character who
has emotional scars of his own related to his embarrassment of
serving time in Parchman prison and of one particular responsibility
he had to carry out.
Mam –
the grandmother, a very gifted healer who practiced the ancient ways
of early African- American healers [ strongly suggests she was
similar to a voodoo priestess]. Mam has the ability to “read”
the plants, trees, and to hear, but not see, the ghosts and spirits.
During the story, Mam is already bedridden, dying of cancer. She
still has a strong and binding presence in the story.
Leonie
gave birth to the 2 biracial children but I'd never call her a mother
and neither do the children. She is a self absorbed drug addict who
sees her dead brother, Given, but only when she's high on drugs.
Michael
is the white father who is absent most of the book since he's in
Parchman prison.
JoJo,
the 13 year old biracial son/grandson seems to be who ties this
dysfunctional family together. JoJo's story is a heartbreaking story
of coming of age in poverty, in rural Mississippi, born of very young
parents ill equipped to raise him or his 3 year old little sister,
Kayla. JoJo has inherited from Mam, the whole realm of the “gift”.
He has the ability to see, hear, feel ghosts and spirits, he also is
described as being able to “understand” the plants, trees and
animals.
We
have just a few glimpses of this powerful ability in 3 year old Kayla
also.
[when
JoJo is in the woods with the tree full of ghosts] Quoted from
the book:
She
faces the tree, nose up to the air. Head tilted back to see. Her
eyes Michael's, her nose Leonie's, the set of her shoulders Pop's,
and the way she looks upward, like she is measuring the tree, all
Mam. …......
“Go
home”, she says ….................
Kayla
begins to sing, a song of mismatched, half garbled words, nothing I
can understand. Only the melody, which is low but still loud as the
swish and sway of the trees, that cuts their whispering but twines
with it at the same time. And the ghosts open their mouths wider and
their faces fold at the edges so they look like they're crying, but
they can't. And Kayla sings louder. She waves her hand in the air
as she sings, and I know it, know the movement, know it's how Leonie
rubbed my back, rubbed Kayla's back, when we were frightened of the
world. Kayla sings, and the multitude of ghosts lean forward,
nodding. They smile with something like relief, something like
remembrance, something like ease. ….........
Kayla
hums over my shoulder, says shhh.
Makes
me wonder if the author is leaving the possibility for a sequel
involving JoJo and Kayla ?? Can I be the 1st
to call dibs if so !!
This
would be an excellent book for English/Lit class, whether high
school or college. A very powerful, moving, thought provoking book.
I
received this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
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