“Sometimes I think it done changed. And then I sleep and wake up, and
it ain’t changed none…It’s like a snake that sheds its skin. The outside look different when the scales
change, but the inside always the same.”
~Richie in Sing.Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward
Jesmyn Ward’s Sing,Unburied Sing turned me inside out, put another crack in my heart, and turned on another light in my brain. How can one small book harbor so many of today’s heart-breaking headlines: the tragedy of how we treat one another because of something as shallow as skin pigmentation, the epidemic of rural drug addiction and the damage it does to families, the never-ending scourge of poverty and the way it leaves its victims voiceless for generations, and the unjust, ineptly named judicial system in America and the damage it does to us all. Somehow, Ward shines a light on all of these while telling an engaging story and creating complex, nuanced characters that I expect we will remember for a long time.
Before I was through the first chapter, I loved JoJo as a
precocious, wounded, strong, promising 13-year-old young man. By the time I reached the scene where the
sheriff’s deputy pulls the gun on him, I was floored by my own shocked, naïve reaction. My mind went to “No, you can’t do that. He’s just a child. That’s not right. That couldn’t happen.” And then I remembered that it happens every
day somewhere in America, very often with more tragic results than JoJo’s luck
in that scene. That’s when I realized
how sheltered, how unaware on a visceral level I am of what young black men in America live and how
overwhelmingly frightening it must be to be the parent of a black child. Even though I try to be compassionate and
empathetic, I don’t have the experience, the ability to understand. It’s truly unfortunate that the people in
power in this situation are also the people who have no capacity to understand
the nature of its insidious truths. How
will we ever get anywhere? Maybe by beginning to understand that we cannot
understand.
Ward’s recognition this week by the MacArthur Foundation encourages me
to look forward to more novels from her in the coming years. I haven’t read her National Book Award winner,
Salvage the Bones, but I intend to just as soon as I can handle another emotionally wrenching novel. I understand it too is set in the fictional
town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. I
have a feeling both novels are just two of the stories the lyrical, perceptive
Ward eventually will give us, and I know we will be better for receiving them.
3 comments:
The book sounds heart-breakingly good. Thanks for the review.
That is a perfect way to describe it, Anne.
I read Salvage the Bones almost six years ago. Below is the link to what I wrote about it, which includes these words:
"It was an intense story that was well-written, but I didn't enjoy it at all. That does not mean it was not a good story — just that it isn't one I could possibly 'enjoy.' It was more gut-wrenching than enjoyable, a brutal story."
https://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2012/01/beginning-on-water.html
Would I recommend it? Yes, I rated it 9 of 10, but it is gut-wrenching. I reviewed it along with Zeitoun by Dave Eggers, another book about Hurricane Katrina. I rated this one 10 of 10, which means I couldn't put it down, and I consider this one a better book.
I don't know if you prefer fiction or nonfiction, but di notice that Zeitoun is nonfiction about Louisiana (historical), and Salvage the Bones is fiction set in Mississippi. I read both fiction and nonfiction, often at the same time. I rarely read two novels at the same time because there's too much chance of getting the characters mixed up with each other.
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