Feeling Rebloggy
The novel, which critics compared to works by William Faulkner and Toni Morrison, features a 13-year-old boy named Jojo, whose drug-addicted mother takes him and his toddler sister on a road trip to pick up their white father when he is released from prison. The judges called the book “a narrative so beautifully taut and heartbreakingly eloquent that it stops the breath.”
~NY TIMES
This is her second time winning. She also won for
National Book Foundation: Why did you write this book?
Jesmyn Ward: As a lifelong reader, I fell in love with classic “odyssey” novels early on—especially As I Lay Dying, The Grapes of Wrath, and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Yet I always felt somehow outside these books. This novel responds to that tradition, reflecting the realities of being black and poor in the South, the realities of my people and my community. While the novel explores darker aspects of Mississippi’s past and present, through Parchman Farm, the Mississippi State Prison, and the complicated legacy of slavery and mass incarceration, it’s also a celebration of the black family and familial love. My characters face the terrible consequences of racism and poverty wherever they go, but they also have an incredible, tender, transformative love for each other. I wanted to acknowledge all of the forces that work against us and our ability to survive despite all.
http://www.nationalbook.org/nba2017-finalist-fic-ward-sing-unburied-sing.html#.WklF0N-nFPY
ON MY LIST TO READ NEXT YEAR
BLACKCHICKROCKED.BLOGSPOT.COM
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