The Shoofly Magazine
  • Home
    • Amtrak Gulf Coast: Latest News
    • 15 Minutes Photo Galleries
    • Arts Alive!
    • Bay Reads
    • Beach to Bayou
    • Big Buzz Blog
    • Coast Cuisine
    • The Eyes Have It
    • Good Neighbor
    • Living Large
    • Nature Notes
    • Noteworthy Women
    • On the Shoofly
    • Partner Spotlight
    • Second Saturday
    • Shared History
    • Sonny's Fishing Report
    • Talk of the Town
    • Town Green
    • Upcoming Events
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Calendar Users Guide
    • Calendar FAQs
  • Communities
    • Bay St. Louis Lifestyle
    • Diamondhead Lifestyle
    • Pass Christian Lifestyle
    • Waveland Lifestyle
  • Readers' Circle
    • Partners
  • Local Living
    • Upcoming Events
    • EAT
    • SHOP
    • PLAY >
      • Community Calendar
    • STAY >
      • Camping & RV Parks
    • TOURS >
      • Instagram Tours >
        • Beach Blvd. Instagram Ops
        • Main Street Instagram Ops
        • Second Street Instagram Ops
        • Depot District Instagram Stars
        • Black History Instagram Tour - Part 1
    • PETS
    • WEDDINGS
    • SERVICES >
      • Automotive
      • Construction
      • Entertainment
      • Financial Services
      • Food & Beverage
      • Health
      • Home & Garden
      • Legal Services
      • Marine & Boating
      • Marketing
      • Media
      • Office
      • Personal Care
      • Pets
      • Real Estate
      • Recreation
      • Transportation
      • Travel/Hospitality
      • Utilities
    • ORGANIZATIONS >
      • Churches
      • Government
      • Education >
        • Art Teachers
      • Hurricane Prep Guide
      • Wildlife Rescue in South Mississippi

Sing, Unburied, Sing:  a Review

11/1/2017

 
Bay Reads - Nov/Dec 2017
Author Jesmyn Ward, who grew up in DeLisle, Mississippi, has just turned 40 and has already established herself as a leading American writer.  According to Shoofly book reviewer, Carole McKellar, her latest effort is the best yet. 
Shoofly Magazine Home
Picture
Jesmyn Ward at Pass Books, 2016, photo by Ellis Anderson
In October (2017), Jesmyn Ward was awarded one of the twenty four MacArthur “Genius” Grants for 2017. Awarded annually since 1981, the grants are given to Americans deemed to be “intelligent, creative, driven, and doing important work.”

​In addition to the honor, the award includes $625,000 paid over five years. In announcing the grant, the MacArthur Foundation praised Ward as a “fiction writer exploring the bonds of community and familial love among poor African Americans in the rural South.”

​Ward was raised in DeLisle, a community separated from Pass Christian by the Wolf River Marsh Coastal Preserve. Ward returned to DeLisle after receiving bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Stanford University followed by an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Michigan. 

Bay Reads 
is sponsored by

Picture

Click here and scroll down for archived Bay Reads columns
PicturePass Books has a limited number of signed copies available.
​She is raising her two children near her extended family in a community with a few thousand residents. Ward is currently teaching English at Tulane University in New Orleans.
 
A DeLisle-like community, Bois Savage, is the setting for Ward’s three novels. She won recognition for her first novel, Where the Line Bleeds, but her second novel, Salvage the Bones, won the National Book Award. Her third, Sing Unburied, Sing, was released in September, 2017 to universal praise from readers and critics alike. I believe it to be her finest writing to date.
 
Sing, Unburied, Sing is told from three points of view: JoJo, a 13-year-old mixed-race boy, his unreliable mother, Leonie, and Richie, a ghost. JoJo and his toddler sister, Kayla, live with their maternal grandparents because Leonie has a drug problem and their white father is in Parchman Prison for distributing meth. Pop and Mam provide a stable and loving home for the children, but Mam is dying of cancer. 
 
Leonie decides to take her children to the Delta when her husband, Michael, is released from Parchman. Leonie’s drug sharing friend, Misty, joins them. The road trip occupies much of the story with constant misadventures. 

​Two ghosts accompany the travelers. When high, Leonie is visited by the ghost of her brother, Given, who was murdered by Michael’s cousin. JoJo sees Richie, imprisoned at age twelve for stealing food for his family. JoJo learned about Richie from Pop’s stories about his own incarceration at Parchman as a young man. Pop was sent there essentially for the crime of being a young black man.
 
In spite of troubled lives, this is a book filled with love. Pop is a strong father figure attempting to prepare JoJo for manhood. I flagged several well-written accounts of their relationship such as this passage that occurred between Pop and JoJo prior to the road trip:
 
       “You a man, you hear?” he said. I nodded…Pop with his straight shoulders and
       his tall back, his pleading eyes the only thing that spoke to me in that moment
       and told me what he said without words: I love you, boy. I love you.
 
Because Mam is dying, JoJo is the primary caregiver of Kayla, a job he accepts with tenderness and responsibility. Their relationship troubles Leonie because Kayla seeks comfort from JoJo instead of her. Leonie and Michael are difficult to like because they love each other more than their almost abandoned children. Surprisingly, Leonie makes a good narrator in the chapters written in her voice. She brings Mam to life remembering her as a wise woman passing along extensive knowledge of herbal medicine and folk remedies.
 
In addition to three novels, Jesmyn Ward wrote a nonfiction book, The Men We Reaped, and edited The Fire This Time which I wrote about in the October, 2016 Bay Reads column. Pass Christian’s community reading program, One Book One Pass, chose The Fire This Time as their selection for 2017. Events were planned throughout the year culminating in a discussion and reading by the author on October 18. 
 
​The Gulf Coast is fortunate to have such an important writer living among us. Pass Christian Books held a book signing in September where Ms. Ward read from Sing, Unburied, Sing followed by a question and answer period. Jesmyn Ward appears warm and approachable while maintaining a natural reserve. She reported working on a new novel set in New Orleans during the 19th century. I look forward to reading that and all future work from this talented Mississippian.
Picture



Comments are closed.

    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture
    Picture

    RSS Feed

    Categories

    All
    15 Minutes
    Across The Bridge
    Antiques
    Architecture
    Art
    Arts Alive
    At Home In The Bay
    Bay Bride
    Bay Business
    Bay Reads
    Beach To Bayou
    Beach-to-bayou
    Beautiful Things
    Benefit
    Big Buzz
    Boats
    Body+Mind+Spirit
    Books
    BSL Council Updates
    BSL P&Z
    Business
    Business Buzz
    Casting My Net
    Civics
    Coast Cuisine
    Coast Lines Column
    Day Tripping
    Design
    DIY
    Editors Notes
    Education
    Environment
    Events
    Fashion
    Food
    Friends Of The Animal Shelter
    Good Neighbor
    Grape Minds
    Growing Up Downtown
    Harbor Highlights
    Health
    History
    Honor Roll
    House And Garden
    Legends And Legacies
    Local Focal
    Lodging
    Mardi Gras
    Mind+Body+Spirit
    Mother Of Pearl
    Murphy's Musical Notes
    Music
    Nature
    Nature Notes
    New Orleans
    News
    Noteworthy Women
    Old Town Merchants
    On The Shoofly
    Parenting
    Partner Spotlight
    Pass Christian
    Public Safety
    Puppy-dog-tales
    Rheta-grimsley-johnson
    Science
    Second Saturday
    Shared History
    Shared-history
    Shelter-stars
    Shoofly
    Shore Thing Fishing Report
    Sponsor Spotlight
    Station-house-bsl
    Talk Of The Town
    The Eyes Have It
    Tourism
    Town Green
    Town-green
    Travel
    Tying-the-knot
    Video
    Vintage-vignette
    Vintage-vignette
    Waveland
    Weddings
    Wellness
    Window-shopping
    Wines-and-dining

    Archives

    December 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    July 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    September 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    July 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    August 2014
    November 2013
    August 2013
    June 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    December 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    May 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011

Shoofly Magazine Partners

​Our Shoofly Partners are local businesses and organizations who share our mission to enrich community life in Bay St. Louis, Waveland, Diamondhead and Pass Christian. These are limited in number to maximize visibility. Email us now to become a Shoofly Partner!
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture

Alice Moseley Folk Art Museum

Bay Town Inn

Bay-tique Boutique

The Bay Bum

The Shops of Century Hall

Chiniche Engineering

Creole Creamery

The Cultured Oak

The French Potager

Hancock County Historical Society

HL Raymond Properties

Kenny Dental

Lagarde's Fine Wine & Spirits

The Loft
The Mane Salon

Magnolia Antiques

Ms. Mary's Old Town Snoballs

Mystic Ghost Tours

PJ's Coffee

Salty Soul Outfitters

Theatre in the Pass

VSPA at Hancock Women's Center

The Wedding Collection ​

John & Ning Wiebmer


The Shoofly Magazine is published by MAC Media, LLC. Unless otherwise attributed, all written content and photography copyright MAC Media, LLC

Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
  • Home
    • Amtrak Gulf Coast: Latest News
    • 15 Minutes Photo Galleries
    • Arts Alive!
    • Bay Reads
    • Beach to Bayou
    • Big Buzz Blog
    • Coast Cuisine
    • The Eyes Have It
    • Good Neighbor
    • Living Large
    • Nature Notes
    • Noteworthy Women
    • On the Shoofly
    • Partner Spotlight
    • Second Saturday
    • Shared History
    • Sonny's Fishing Report
    • Talk of the Town
    • Town Green
    • Upcoming Events
  • Calendar
    • Upcoming Events
    • Calendar Users Guide
    • Calendar FAQs
  • Communities
    • Bay St. Louis Lifestyle
    • Diamondhead Lifestyle
    • Pass Christian Lifestyle
    • Waveland Lifestyle
  • Readers' Circle
    • Partners
  • Local Living
    • Upcoming Events
    • EAT
    • SHOP
    • PLAY >
      • Community Calendar
    • STAY >
      • Camping & RV Parks
    • TOURS >
      • Instagram Tours >
        • Beach Blvd. Instagram Ops
        • Main Street Instagram Ops
        • Second Street Instagram Ops
        • Depot District Instagram Stars
        • Black History Instagram Tour - Part 1
    • PETS
    • WEDDINGS
    • SERVICES >
      • Automotive
      • Construction
      • Entertainment
      • Financial Services
      • Food & Beverage
      • Health
      • Home & Garden
      • Legal Services
      • Marine & Boating
      • Marketing
      • Media
      • Office
      • Personal Care
      • Pets
      • Real Estate
      • Recreation
      • Transportation
      • Travel/Hospitality
      • Utilities
    • ORGANIZATIONS >
      • Churches
      • Government
      • Education >
        • Art Teachers
      • Hurricane Prep Guide
      • Wildlife Rescue in South Mississippi