What I’ve Been Reading Lately…

Sing, Unburied, Sing, Jesmyn Ward

Ward’s novel is a stunning endeavor that dabbles in magical realism in the Deep South of Mississippi, USA, telling the story of grandson and grandfather on parallel planes. Jojo is a 12-year-old boy with one parent in jail and the other a drug addict, who is trying to protect his baby sister and figure out why the spirit of his grandfather’s dead friend from long ago won’t leave him in peace. A fresh example of the archetypal road novel, as one account describes, the reader follows Jojo’s journey to understanding and back again as he comes to recognize the power in knowing and how even the best of intentions can sometimes fail.

The Blood Miracles, Lisa McInerney

McInerney’s second novel is a continuation of The Glorious Heresies, which won the Women’s Prize for Fiction in 2016, this time following the son of one of the main characters from the first book, Ryan. Ryan was a small time drug dealer who has since become a main player in Cork’s drug scene, and will soon have the battle scars to show it. Although there are some inconsistencies throughout the novel (or maybe just my bad memory not remembering all the details from the first book), it is a captivating story of how one bad decision can be the slippery slope to many others, and subsequently their consequences. In a stereotypical ending of the novel, Ryan promises to his pregnant ex-girlfriend that he will change, and readers are left unsure of how he will keep his promise, as his drug-dealing boss is reluctant to let him out of the game. One can easily see how a third novel could be in the works.

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