Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel
ミシシッピ州の架空の町ボワ・ソヴァージュを舞台に、少年ジョジョと妹ケイラ、薬物依存を抱える母レオニー、祖父母の家族を描く長編小説。父の出所に向かう道中で、生者と死者の声、刑務所の記憶、人種差別の歴史が重なり、家族の愛と傷の深さを浮かび上がらせる。
作品情報
ロードノヴェルの形を借りて、南部の家族史に残る痛みと、死者の声を聴く子どものまなざしを描く。
ジョジョは祖父母の農場で妹の世話をしながら、母レオニーの不安定さと祖母の病に向き合っている。白人の父が刑務所から出る日、一家は車で迎えに向かうが、その旅は家族の秘密と過去の暴力を呼び覚ます。リアリズムとマジックリアリズムを重ね、死者の声と子どもの視点からアメリカ南部の現在を描いた作品。
レビュー要約
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抒情的な文体と民話的な響きが、南部の貧困、人種差別、家族の喪失を重く響かせている。幽霊の要素は装飾ではなく、過去が現在に居座る感覚を強めるものとして読まれている。
書籍情報
- 出版社
- Scribner
- 発売日
- 2017-09-05
- ページ数
- 304ページ
- 言語
- 英語
- サイズ
- 13.97 x 2.79 x 21.27 cm
- ISBN-13
- 9781501126062
- ISBN-10
- 1501126067
- 価格
- 4816 JPY
- カテゴリ
- 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.
レビュー
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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.
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