He too has something to teach Jojo about fathers and sons, about legacies, about violence, about love.

At Parchman, there is another boy, the ghost of a dead inmate who carries all of the ugly history of the South with him in his wandering. 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. Embattled in ways that reflect the brutal reality of her circumstances, she wants to be a better mother, but can’t put her children above her own needs, especially her drug use. She is black and her children’s father is white. His mother, Leonie, is in constant conflict with herself and those around her. Jojo is thirteen years old and trying to understand what it means to be a man. I would highly recommend this book, and would give it four out of five stars.Everything I mention in this review will be spoiler-free because this book really hits hard and I want readers to experience it first hand! I usually don’t even read the synopsis of a book before hand, so I don’t know what to expect but this one kind of lays out all the important elements of the book without giving anything away.Īn intimate portrait of a family and an epic tale of hope and struggle, Sing, Unburied, Sing examines the ugly truths at the heart of the American story and the power – and limitations – of family bonds. I loved the honesty behind the author’s writing, and I enjoyed the beautiful writing style. The meanings behind the plot are subtle, and the supernatural aspect is a good point of interest to tie together the past and the present. The book can be a slow read, as all the scenery and characters are continually described in precise detail, but the author leaves no point unexplained. I enjoyed this book very much because of its complexity. However, the spirituality plays a role because another character who joins the road trip is the mother’s dead brother, who appears as a ghost and brings up the idea of family. The story analyzes the reasons behind a broken family, and brings to light the continued racism in the southern USA.

The novel switches between a modern setting, and the prison but from the 1940s, when the black grandfather was in jail.

Their father, a white drug dealer, is in prison, and the book follows the family’s road trip to go and pick him up. Her mother spends more time doing drugs than raising her kids, so the grandparents have generally brought them up. The main characters are the mother, the son, and the baby daughter, who relies more on her brother than her own mom. It revolves around a family who face racism from the white grandfather of black children. This book is a mix of old folklore and spirituality, racism, social stereotypes, and empathy.

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