Set in the Gulf Coast of Mississippi, the scenes portray a time when the place affected by Hurricane Katrina. Constantly swaying between on how to be a better mother and how to establish a place for herself in the fractured family, Leonie is grappling for a place she could call home. When Jojo’s white father, Michael is taken away to penitentiary, Leonie completely loses it, being a teenage mother doesn’t help either. Her addled mind is both comforted and tormented by visions of her dead brother. Leonie, on the other hand, is struggling with her drug habits and her dead brother doesn’t seem to stop visiting her in her drug-induced state. Pop is the only one who is trying to hold this broken family together. Mam (grandmother) is fighting with cancer and the chemo had really left it’s after effects. This scene was so vividly written that I was actually transported to the goat yard and I was actually witnessing Jojo reach into the goat’s stomach to pull out the innards. This smell is worse it’s the smell of death, the rot coming from something just alive, something hot with blood and life. Pop slits.īut, no sooner, we find him throwing up in the bushes. It shows me it’s soft eye, but I don’t look away, don’t blink. So, when Pop has to get the goat liver he is going to sear for Jojo’s 13th birthday, Jojo doesn’t flinch at the thought of seeing the goat getting skinned, in fact he tries to help his Pop, he tries to be a Man. Jojo follows Pop (grandfather) around and wants to be like him. It was a new thing, to look at her rubbing hands and her crooked teeth in her chattering mouth and not hear Mama in my head, but her name: Leonie. She said: You all right, huh, Jojo? And I looked at her and said: No, Leonie. Living with his Grandfather and grandmother, he is detached from his mother, Leonie.

The most important thing in his life is to protect his baby sister, Kayla from all the voodoo-istic powers that surrounds them. Jojo, in his 13 years of existence is learning how to be a man. Caressing over various topics, it doesn’t shy away from narrating the scenes with brutal honesty. Sing, Unburied, Sing is one of the poignant pieces that I have read this year. I couldn’t stop my lips from mouthing the word “wow”. It took me a while to actually close the book and when I did, I zoned out completely. The narration is going to tear you apart from time to time. You’ll be processing everything that you’ve read time and again. Sing, Unburied, Sing is one of those books which would stick with you even after you have finished reading it. I am really glad that I got the opportunity to review this book which have also won the National Book Award for Fiction. Today I am going to review a book which I think is one of the best books which I have read this year.

Goodreads sing unburied sing