My father still, to this day, changes his accent when he feels it is necessary to prove his American-ness. The “community” pool near my mother’s town was only open for “Mexicans” on Monday, because the pool was drained on Tuesday. My father’s hair was once shaved off as a punishment, and slapping of hands was very ordinary.

Growing up, they were reprimanded for speaking Spanish at school. I have never felt unsafe because of the color of my skin. My mother never left me for at days at a time to use drugs. I was privileged to not have experienced anything close to what anyone in this book has experienced.

Given’s death is a reflection of the horror of racial violence and lynchings of the past and not too distant past. Yet, the reader sees that Leone, and Ma and Pa are all emotionally ruined by the murder of Given, Ma and Pa’s son and Leone’s brother. Leone is a neglectful mother, never providing food for her children and is spiteful to her son Jojo, even though he is truly the mother/father/caretaker to his toddler sister. While this a story about a family, the real setting, character and problem is the deep rooted violence and racism in this area. The setting is Mississippi and while the time period is unclear, it is close to the present. Leone, in and out of the children’s lives and spending more time doing various drugs than tending to her kin, decides that Jojo, Michaela and her friend Misty are going on a two day trip to pick up Michael, who is being released from prison.

With exception of Michael, all of this family is Black. Michael is their father and Ma and Pa are Leone’s parents and true caretakers of her children. How would your life change if your brother was violently murdered and those at fault were not punished? How would you cope? These are some of many questions posed in the National Book Award winning book, Sing, Unburied, Sing : A Novel by Jesmyn Ward.

Sing unburied sing novel