A road trip novel that dredges up the past
Every week, The Thread checks in with booksellers around the country about their favorite books of the moment. This week, we spoke with Melanie McNair from Malaprop's Bookstore in Asheville, N.C.
"Jesmyn Ward is a genius."
That's bookseller Melanie McNair's simplest possible review of the novel "Sing, Unburied, Sing."
"It's a road trip novel that also manages to bring in ghosts; incredibly rich place details about Mississippi; and crystal meth," McNair said. "It's got a beautiful, beautiful set of characters with so much big-hearted compassion."
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Ward also weaves the burden of incarceration into the plot — a burden that has scarred generations of families in the area.
"Every time I thought I knew what was going to happen next, it didn't happen the way I thought it was going to," McNair said. "The whole time I was reading it, I kept thinking: How is she doing this?"
"It manages to be a book that leaves you feeling breathless, in the same way you feel when you've just encountered a master work of art."