Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel
Set in the fictional Mississippi town of Bois Sauvage, the novel follows Jojo, his little sister Kayla, their drug-addicted mother Leonie, and the grandparents who hold the household together. On the road to collect Jojo's father from prison, voices of the living and the dead, prison memory, and the history of racism gather into a story about the depth of family love and injury.
Work Information
In the form of a road novel, it follows the pain lodged in a Southern family history and the gaze of a child who hears the dead.
Jojo cares for his sister on his grandparents' farm while living with his mother Leonie's instability and his grandmother's illness. When his white father is released from prison, the family drives to meet him, and the journey awakens family secrets and old violence. Blending realism with magical realism, the novel views the contemporary American South through the voices of the dead and the eyes of a child.
Review Summaries
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The lyrical style and folkloric resonance give weight to poverty, racism, and family loss in the South. The ghostly elements are not decorative; they sharpen the sense that the past remains present.
Book Information
- Publisher
- Scribner
- Published
- 2017-09-05
- Pages
- 304 pages
- Language
- 英語
- Size
- 13.97 x 2.79 x 21.27 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781501126062
- ISBN-10
- 1501126067
- Price
- 4816 JPY
- Category
- 洋書/Politics & Social Sciences/Politics & Government/Specific Topics/Censorship
*WINNER of the NATIONAL BOOK AWARD for FICTION *A TIME MAGAZINE BEST NOVEL OF THE YEAR and A NEW YORK TIMES TOP 10 OF 2017 *Finalist for the Kirkus Prize *Finalist for the Andrew Carnegie Medal *Finalist for the Aspen Words Literary Prize *Publishers Weekly Top 10 of 2017 *Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award A finalist for the Kirkus Prize, Andrew Carnegie Medal, Aspen Words Literary Prize, and a New York Times bestseller, this majestic, stirring, and widely praised novel from two-time National Book Award winner Jesmyn Ward, the story of a family on a journey through rural Mississippi, is a “tour de force” ( O, The Oprah Magazine ) and a timeless work of fiction that is destined to become a classic. In Jesmyn Ward’s first novel since her National Book Award–winning Salvage the Bones , this singular American writer brings the archetypal road novel into rural twenty-first-century America. An intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing journeys through Mississippi’s past and present, examining the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power—and limitations—of family bonds. Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. He doesn’t lack in fathers to study, chief among them his Black grandfather, Pop. But there are other men who complicate his understanding: his absent White father, Michael, who is being released from prison; his absent White grandfather, Big Joseph, who won’t acknowledge his existence; and the memories of his dead uncle, Given, who died as a teenager. His mother, Leonie, is an inconsistent presence in his and his toddler sister’s lives. She is an imperfect mother in constant conflict with herself and those around her. She is Black and her children’s father is White. She wants to be a better mother but can’t put her children above her own needs, especially her drug use. Simultaneously tormented and comforted by visions of her dead brother, which only come to her when she’s high, Leonie is embattled in ways that reflect the brutal reality of her circumstances. When the children’s father is released from prison, Leonie packs her kids and a friend into her car and drives north to the heart of Mississippi and Parchman Farm, the State Penitentiary. At Parchman, there is another thirteen-year-old boy, the ghost of a dead inmate who carries all of the ugly history of the South with him in his wandering. He too has something to teach Jojo about fathers and sons, about legacies, about violence, about love. Rich with Ward’s distinctive, lyrical language, Sing, Unburied, Sing is a majestic new work and an unforgettable family story.
Jesmyn Ward received her MFA from the University of Michigan and has received the MacArthur Genius Grant, a Stegner Fellowship, a John and Renee Grisham Writers Residency, the Strauss Living Prize, and the 2022 Library of Congress Prize for American Fiction. She is the winner of two National Book Awards for Fiction for Sing, Unburied, Sing and Salvage the Bones . She is also the author of the novel Where the Line Bleeds and the memoir Men We Reaped , which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and won the Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize and the Media for a Just Society Award. She is currently a professor of creative writing at Tulane University and lives in Mississippi.
Reviews
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活字が大きく見易い
Fontが大きく、高齢者にも見易い。未読ながら楽しみです。
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Ha ça faisait longtemps que je n’avais pas autant aimé un livre. C’est touchant, c’est beau, c’est simple, et ça change aussi beaucoup des histoires de racisme dans le sud des usa qu’on connait.. magnifique.
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Jesmyn Ward's "Sing, Unburied, Sing", winner of National Book Award for Fiction 2017, is simply a literary masterpiece. Set in the American South, it depicts the past and present of Mississipi with a contemporary African-American family. Jesmyn Ward's writing style is stunning with lyrical beauty of words. The story revolves around the voices of three narrators: Jojo, Leonie and Richie. Jojo is a thirteen-year old innocent boy, lives with his maternal grandparents, whom he calls Mam and Pop. Mam is dying of cancer, and Pop tries to run the household and teach Jojo how to be a man. Jojo has a younger sister, three year old, Kayla, to whom he is more of a parent than their mother, Leonie has ever been. He cares her sister a lot, and Kayla is more attached to Jojo. The kids mother Leonie, who is a Black lady, is a drug addict. She is lacking parenting skills and lives in her own way. Mam says Jojo about Leonie: “She ain’t got the mothering instinct. I knew when you were little and we were about shopping, and she bought herself to something to eat and ate it right in front of you, and you were sitting there crying hungry. I knew then” Leonie is waiting for Michael - a White, her children’s father, to finish a prison sentence from Parchman jail. When Michael is released from prison, she travels with her kids and a friend into the prison, Parchman farm, the Mississippi State Penitentiary. During their travel to Parchman and in the return journey, the novel chronicles the various stories and incidents through the narration of its central characters, which brings an ocean of emotions into the your mind. “I washed my hands every day, Jojo. But that damn blood ain’t never come out. Hold my hands up to my face, I can smell it under my skin”, a character says to Jojo. Sing, Unburied, Sing is a brilliant tale on not-buried heart of the communities. Jesmyn Ward depicts the issues of race, injustice, and messy family set up with lack of parenting skills. The novel also depicts two ghosts: Richie and Given, to tell the story of injustice. Ghosts are representatives of injustice happened in the past, and it haunt the present. This book would be a great read to everyone who loves great literary books. With this book, Jesmy Ward, two-time award winner of National Book Award for Fiction, proves that she is one of the best authors in the world among the contemporary novelists.
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This book touches on racism, poverty, addiction, and generational trauma with honesty and sensitivity. It’s not always an easy read emotionally, but it is absolutely worth it. Highly recommended for readers who enjoy literary fiction with strong characters and meaningful themes.
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One of the best novels I have read in years. Characters you will know and care about, all with a touch of magic realism southern USA style. Highly recommended.
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Fantasmas de Toni Morrison e William Faulkner rondam o segundo e premiado romance de Jesmyn Ward, SING, UNBURIED, SING. Há também outros possíveis fantasmas, mas esses são personagens que transitam entre esse e outro mundo. Mas o maior fantasma que assombra não apenas a narrativa, mas também os Estados Unidos (e outros países), é o racismo. Em The underground railroad, Colson Whitehead diz: “A América é um fantasma na escuridão”. Essa poderia ser uma epígrafe para o romance de Ward. Escuridão também é uma imagem – ou ausência de imagem – evocada de tempos em tempos no livro. A escuridão que cega personagens incapazes de ver com lucidez as relações e amarras sociais que os unem e separam. Leonie e Michael formam um casal interracial unido não apenas pelo seu amor doentio, mas também pelo vício em metadona. Ele acaba de sair da prisão após participar do assassinado do irmão dela – um dos fantasmas do livro. O outro é Richie, um garoto que morreu na mesma prisão onde Michael cumpriu sua sentença. Parte da narrativa é filtrada pelo olhar de Jojo, 13 anos, filho mais velho do casal, criado pelos avós – agora, a avó está em seu leito de morte, vítima de um câncer -, e ele e sua irmã são retomados pelos pais. A outra narradora é Leonie, com sua visão intoxicada do mundo e dos laços de família. E, por fim, o último narrador é Richie, em sua fantasmagoria melancólica da vida que não vive. Ward conjuga essas vozes entre idas e vindas, criando um coro estilhaçado pelo preconceito racial, pela herança cultural e o peso de ser um/uma negro/negra nos Estados Unidos. Essa odisseia polifônica evoca o Faulkner de As I Lay Dying (Enquanto Agonizo), mas Ward, ao contrário do escritor, é mulher e negra, suas preocupações e ansiedades são outras, muito mais próximas da Beloved (Amada), de Toni Morrison – outro livro com um possível fantasma ao centro. Os fantasmas, aqui e nos outros livros, são mais do que presenças são assombrações metafísicas de problemas materiais, e a prosa de Ward evoca isso com força e poesia. Embora as três vozes não encontrem o mesmo peso e nem sempre sejam muito distintas – de longe, a de Jojo é a melhor e a mais interessante, assim como sua narrativa – todas têm algo a dizer sobre o estado das coisas. E também há quem cante – e quem canta são os milhares de negros escravizados, explorados, vilipendiados, mortos. Sua canção, em Sing, unburied, sing, é o rito funeral que tenta enterrar um passado em busca de um futuro mais justo, mas sem nunca esquecer o peso da história.