This book is amazing. I love this book. I am so glad I stumbled across this looking for something to fill up my bingo card. Magical realism is one of my absolute favorite story telling devices when it is done well, and this is such a perfect example of what it can really do. This is the story of Jojo’s family. Jojo is a thirteen-year-old mixed race boy growing up in the current day South and straddling that realm in between boyhood and adulthood. He […]
Just read it
Probably because I’ve read them both in the last month, I kept hearkening back to Lincoln in the Bardo. It certainly isn’t the best comparison, but the themes of grief and loss are persistent in both and very keenly unearthed by both authors. If anything, I went into this one knowing less and with more discovery awaiting me. It didn’t do as much more me (I still really, really loved the experimental nature of Lincoln), but I did really enjoy it. It’s like the book is haunting me. […]
Like my marrow could carry a bruise.
I couldn’t decide if this was a book that I needed to digest a little before I tried to review it. Ultimately, I decided to write about it immediately after finishing it, while it still clung to me. This is definitely a book that clings to you. It’s not an easy book to read and it shouldn’t be. The bulk of the story is a somber road trip that takes place over a few days, trapped inside a hot car in the American south. When Michael […]
Now Read This
I haven’t read Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward’s earlier novel, though it’s been on my to-read list since it first came out, so this was my first experience with Ward’s writing. Sing, Unburied, Sing is a novel both beautiful and terrible, heartbreaking yet optimistic, and grittily realistic while tinged with magical realism. It’s a family story but one where the history of race, poverty, and violence is close to the surface. Jojo lives with his grandparents, Pop and Mam, while his mother, Leonie, hovers around […]