Summary
Introduction
Jesmyn Ward’s third novel, Sing, Unburied, Sing, was published in 2017. Rotating through the perspectives of several characters, it chronicles the relationships of a dysfunctional family in the fictional town of Bois Sauvage, Mississippi. Blending the mythical with the real, it explores themes surrounding race, family, love, and death. Sing, Unburied, Sing received positive reviews from critics and went on to receive numerous accolades, including the 2017 National Book Award for Fiction.
Plot Summary
On Jojo's thirteenth birthday, he helps his grandfather, Pop, kill a goat. Over goat stew that night, Pop tells him the story of how he went to jail at age fifteen when his brother, Stag, got into a bar fight; the cops arrested them both because of their race. In jail, Pop met a twelve-year-old boy named Richie, whom he befriended and tried his best to protect. Meanwhile, Jojo's mother, Leonie, learns that Michael, her longtime boyfriend and the father of her children, is being released from Parchman prison after serving a three-year sentence for cooking meth. Jojo distrusts Leonie, because she is a drug addict who neglects the responsibilities of being a mother. Leonie’s irresponsibility and neglect have forced Jojo to act as a parent to his younger sister, Kayla.
After Leonie argues with Pop and Mam over whether she should bring the children along to pick up Michael, she sets out for Parchman with Jojo and Kayla. She hopes that by bringing the children to pick up their father, they can be a family again. They are joined by Leonie’s coworker and fellow drug addict Misty, whose boyfriend is also at Parchman. On the way, they take a detour to Misty’s friend’s house, where they are given a bag of meth. Misty, who has experience running drugs, reassures a nervous Leonie that everything will be fine. They successfully deliver the meth to Michael’s lawyer, Al, who gives them food and lets them stay the night in his home. The next day, they arrive at Parchman and pick up Michael. Leonie greets him warmly, but Jojo and Kayla are unable to view him as a father since he has been such an inconsistent figure in their lives.
As the group leaves Parchman, Richie’s ghost appears to Jojo and states that he was killed while on the run from the prison. Richie recognizes Jojo as Pop’s descendant, and his memories of the events surrounding his death slowly begin to return. However, he is unable to recall exactly how he died and hopes that by following Jojo home, he will be able to find answers.
The trip home is uncomfortable for everyone; Leonie and Michael grow increasingly frustrated with Jojo and Kayla, who do not respect them as parents. They are forced to stay the night at Al’s house again after Kayla vomits in the car. They depart the next day, and Al gives Michael a portion of the meth that Misty and Leonie delivered on their first visit. Once they are back on the road, the group is pulled over by a police officer, and knowing they don’t have time to hide the meth, Leonie swallows all of it. The officer, after hearing that the group is coming from Parchman, handcuffs Leonie, Michael, and Jojo. Things escalate when Jojo reaches into his pocket and the officer assumes he is pulling out a weapon. He forces Jojo onto the ground and points a gun at him, to everyone else’s shock and horror. The situation is resolved when Kayla vomits again and cries out for Jojo, leading the officer to search Jojo’s pockets and realize that...
(This entire section contains 1045 words.)
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all he had was a rock. Leonie quickly becomes ill as a result of the swallowed meth, and Misty and Michael worriedly feed her charcoal and milk until she finally throws it up.
After returning to the house, the group finds that Mam and Pop are not there. Michael insists on taking the kids to visit his parents, who disapprove of Leonie because of her race. Though Michael’s mother, Maggie, tries to be civil and introduces herself to the children, his father, Big Joseph, is rude and dismissive. After Big Joseph criticizes Leonie and calls her a racial slur, Michael attacks him. While the two men fight, Leonie quietly leads Jojo and Kayla out to the car. They then return to Mam and Pop’s house, where Pop greets them from the porch. Inside, cancer-stricken Mam informs Leonie that she is ready to die and asks her daughter to gather the necessary items for a death ritual.
Meanwhile, Richie tries to talk to Pop, but Pop is unable to see or hear him. Richie then turns to Jojo and asks him to have Pop tell the story of Richie’s death. Pop reluctantly does so. While Richie was in jail with Pop, he witnessed a man named Blue raping a female inmate. Blue and Richie escaped together, but Blue tried to rape someone else while on the run. Richie stopped him, but they were then found by a lynch mob. The mob skinned and dismembered Blue alive, but Pop intervened before the same fate befell Richie, instead giving him a more merciful death by stabbing him in the neck.
After telling Jojo about Richie's death, Pop begins to cry, and Richie's spirit screams and disappears. He then reappears in the form of Leonie's dead brother, Given, and tries to take Mam to the afterlife as revenge for his own untimely death. Jojo succeeds in banishing Richie, but Mam instead follows the real Given to the afterlife and dies peacefully. Michael returns and he and Leonie leave to get high. Leonie admits that she is unable to be a mother to her children.
The novel ends with an episode told from Jojo's point of view. He states that he now sleeps in Leonie's bed, since Leonie and Michael are rarely home. Pop continues searching for Mam in his dreams and speaks restlessly in his sleep. Jojo is unable to see the spirits of Mam and Given, but he still sees Richie and other spirits who died violently. Kayla tries to banish them without success. She then begins singing, which gives the spirits relief from their pain.
