It’s a way for Ward to show both the impact that Leonie’s addiction has on her son and the reasons Leonie is an addict. Ward has different characters narrate the chapters, usually Jojo and Leonie alternating, so that we get his perspective followed by hers. From this source, he builds his own history. Jojo’s family history, therefore, is difficult to trace and only his grandpa’s recollections are available to him. Black families generations before Jojo refused to register births, refused to complete the census correctly, because they saw it as another way for white people to account for them as property. They are an aperture into the black American experience. He listens to his grandpa’s tales of growing up poor and black in a community that still believes black people should be the property of white people. Jojo is firmly positioned in time, space and society. The novel starts with a mixture of scene setting and family folklore. He is surrogate parent to his baby sister. His dad, Michael, left when Jojo was nine, and ended up in prison. He’s been raised by his black grandparents. He’s mixed race, with a black mother and a white father. We meet him when he’s thirteen years old. Sing, Unburied, Sing tells the story of Jojo and his family. A book that will enrich the life of anyone who reads it. It didn’t win, but so what? It’s a book that is more than a reading challenge target.

It’s also the book I chose to win in the Reader’s Room March Madness Reading Challenge.

It’s the first I’ve heard of, thanks to the Women’s Prize for Fiction. Sing, Unburied, Sing is Jesmyn Ward’s third novel. Tags 6degrees 20 Books of Summer 1001 Books Africa America Art Australia Autobiography Biography Black culture Black history Blogging about blogging Book review Britain Canada Comedy Crime Dystopia Economics England Fantasy Feminism Film France Germany Graphic novel Historical fiction History Horror Humour Independent Publisher India Influx Press Italy Japan Journalism LGBTQ London Mental health Meta Music Mystery New York Paris Philosophy Picture Prompt Book Bingo Poetry Politics Psychology Racism Randomness Religion Russia Science Science Fiction SciFi Scotland Short stories Six Degrees of Separation Sociology Spain Speculative fiction Sweden Thriller Tokyo Translation Travel United Kingdom USA Wales War Women's Prize for Fiction Women in translation Women in translation month Women read women

Unburied book