Sing, Unburied, Sing

Author: Jesmyn Ward
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
Type: Paperback
Pages: 285
Source: Publisher
Publisher: Scribner
First Published: Sept 5, 2017
First Line: "I like to think I know what death is."

Book Description from GoodReads: Jojo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their grandparents, Mam and Pop, and the occasional presence of their drug-addicted mother, Leonie, on a farm on the Gulf Coast of Mississippi. Leonie is simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she's high; Mam is dying of cancer; and quiet, steady Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. When the white father of Leonie's children is released from prison, she packs her kids and a friend into her car and sets out across the state for Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary, on a journey rife with danger and promise.

Sing, Unburied, Sing grapples with the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power, and limitations, of the bonds of family. Rich with Ward's distinctive, musical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing is a majestic new work and an essential contribution to American literature. 

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to Scribner Books for providing me with a complimentary paperback copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

My Rating: 2.5 stars

My Review: Sing, Unburied, Sing deals with several serious issues such as poverty, bigotry, drug abuse and loss within a dysfunctional family in Mississippi. One would think I'd be pulled into a story that dealt with such emotionally charged subjects and yet I struggled throughout the book to connect with the plot and characters.

There are several things that just didn't work for me. First, the tone of the book was very monotone with a consistently depressing feel throughout. While the writing could be quite beautiful at times but the addition of the ghosts (who even had their own chapters) felt distracting and made the flow of the plot confusing. 

The live characters didn't fare better. With the exception of Jojo (and his wonderful bond with his toddler sister, Kayla) the characters were one-dimensional. But I stayed with the book in the hopes that things would come together.

My biggest issue with the book is the persistent niggling feeling like I was missing something - some bigger meaning, especially pertaining to the ghosts. It was like I was just on the cusp of getting the author's point and that is a frustrating feeling to have. 

Unfortunately, this book just wasn't a good fit for me. Other people have waxed poetic about this book and the emotions they felt while reading it and that's wonderful but I didn't have the same experience. This is a haunting, depressing look at a family that is almost completely fractured and, at times, had me incensed at how these children were being treated by their parents. Unfortunately, that was the only emotion that this book invoked within me.