SING, UNBURIED, SING

by Jesmyn Ward
 
Having read about this National Book Award winner, I knew it was the story of a family making a road trip to pick up their father as he is released from prison.  What I didn’t know is that the book is set in Mississippi, the mother is a young black woman, the inmate is a young white man and their two children and her best friend make the long road trip with her. The writing is gorgeous.  The novel is told from three different characters’ points of view, the mother, her 13-year-old son and the ghost of an adolescent black boy who had been jailed in the same Mississippi prison years before.  Yes, the book includes magical realism, which can sometimes be a turnoff.  But Ward portrays this ghost of a boy as successfully and believably as any Isabel Allende character – and she does magical realism better than any writer I know.
 
Each of the main characters that tells his story is captivating– even the mother, who may be the worst mother of all time.  She’s a drug addict, self-centered, neglectful and abusive towards her children.  But Ward manages to successfully get the reader into her head enough to understand where these flaws come from.  I fell in love with Jojo, her son, who tries his best to compensate for his mother’s shortcomings while trying to figure out adulthood.  His grandparents, especially his grandfather, are also poignant and memorable figures.
 
This is a coming of age book like no other you have read.  Jojo must deal with the return of his father into their family, the death of his grandmother, the horrendous reality of Mississippi’s past treatment of young black men – and indeed how some of that still remains today. You will love Jojo’s grandfather and grandmother and find yourself routing for Jojo’s future. (Liz)