Sing Unburied Sing by Jesmyn Ward

Much acclaimed, this is a complex story set in the modern day American South. But the old horrors resonate still, and Jesmyn Ward has chosen to represent some of the main characters as ghosts, still interacting with the living. Those who met a violent end cannot rest and wander nearby trying to find peace and resolution. Many of these were the results of lynching, hence the ‘unburied’. Uncomfortable and at times a difficult read, it is nevertheless a story of a family, told from the points of view of a teenage boy Jojo, his young mother Leonie, and Richie, a ghost boy from the past whose story interweaves with the family. The story centres around the family waiting for Michael, Leonie’s boyfriend and Jojo’s dad, to be released from Parchman prison. Leonie has never met Michael’s parents because they are white and have painful history with her family. Leonie is a terrible mother, neglecting to feed her children on the long ride to Parchman, so Jojo is his baby sister Kayla’s carer, she clings to him screaming ‘Jojo, Jojo’ if they are parted. There is violence, drugtaking and a carelessness towards the children which is distressing, but there is love too in this tale. The strong, fierce love of Jojo for his sister is a core running through the story, and in turn his grandfather’s love for him. He has been raised by his grandparents and dreads the return of his father. But there is also something his grandfather has taken a lifetime to tell, and Jojo is not sure he wants to hear it. Beautiful, evocative, the ghosts are creatively written and unnerving, and you care very deeply for Jojo and the outcome. The prose doesn’t drag and Jesmyn Ward tells a story which is ultimately full of tenderness.

Dear Mrs Bird by A J Pearce

When A J Pearce found an old wartime women’s magazine complete with agony pages, she was impressed by the strength, resolution and sufferings of the women’s lives, and was inspired to write ‘Dear Mrs Bird’. The result is a sweet little story with a hard centre.
When Emmeline Lake answers an advertisement for a ‘Junior’ at Launceston Press she thinks she is on her way to being an intrepid Lady War Correspondent, but instead finds herself compiling readers’ letters for the alarming Mrs Bird, Editor of Woman’s Friend magazine and also its monstrously unsympathetic agony aunt. It is 1940 and London is in the grip of the blitz, and readers’ lives all over England have been turned inside out by the pressures of war, but Mrs Bird’s robust advice is to stiffen your spine and ‘crack on’. Ignoring the turmoil of her readers, the doughty Mrs Bird has a long list of subjects she simply won’t countenance in the pages of Woman’s Friend. Emmy has other ideas, and as we follow Emmy through her many mistakes and misapprehensions in her attempts to lend some assistance, we wince with concern along with her best friend Bunty. For the most part a light and funny read, but of course, this is wartime and there is heartache ahead too.

Having worked in women’s magazines, I was intrigued by this affectionate look at women’s wartime struggles, from rationing to unwanted pregnancy, confusions about sex and the terrible pain of loss. Women were needed, vital to the war effort and doing important work and the old morals were being overturned all over Blighty. Should ‘Anxious ‘ give herself to her secret soldier sweetheart even though he is Polish? Will ‘Desperate’ be able to hide the fact that she has had an extra-marital liason? These were the genuine turmoils of women of the day, and A J Pearce has mined authentic material to create the tensions of her novel.  But then again, the agonies of the human heart are timeless. A warm and moving read. Well, what are you waiting for? Crack on…

Revisited: The Dry by Jane Harper

The weather has been so scorching recently, I felt compelled to reread this. I’m not a huge reader of crime fiction, but I couldn’t resist The Dry. It had such a strong sense of place. You can just feel yourself in the middle of drought-hit Australia. Our flawed off-duty detective Aaron Falk is convincing as local anti-hero returned, wrestling with demons from his past, which are well hidden. Falk is asked by the father of his childhood friend Luke Hadler, to return to Kiewarra, after Luke has tragically killed himself, his wife and children. The father refuses to accept it. This journey back into small-town Australia is the last thing Falk wants, he has uncomfortable history there (which we are desperate to unravel) but it seems he owes Luke’s dad Gerry in some way that can’t be denied. Wonderfully evocative, and a refreshing change of location, Jane Harper manages to draw out the mystery with deftness. Excellent read.