SING, UNBURIED, SING
This book gripped my heart hard from the first page, broke it in a million pieces and still has not let it go. It is the story of a road trip by a Black mother and her two children to retrieve their White father, recently released from jail - but the events of their journey are secondary to Ward's luminous, harrowing prose and complicated, indelibly drawn characters. Sing Unburied Sing is a gut wrenching and mystical meditation on the Black experience in the south, past and present, individually and collectively, with no simple endings and no easy answers as to what the future will hold. There is so much tenderness, despair, anger, fear, all of it bound together with ghosts and departed souls, it's hard to believe all of it can be held in a single book. It is unforgettable.
There is no red velvet cake in Sing Unburied Sing. There is only the memory of those cakes by a teenage boy, and thoughts of happier birthdays than his thirteenth in chapter one. I could bake Jojo a thousand red velvet cakes and it still would not be enough. The pages about his cake showcase Jesmyn Ward’s stunning writing by introducing these characters who will stay with us long after the story ends. I’m including them in my Instagram story today.
Also, kudos to all the cake bakers out there! I don’t know why it took me so many tries to make a remotely serviceable-looking cake but I commend anyone who can make a truly pretty one! My adventures in springform pans and bright red batter were definitely not photogenic!
