Winner of the National Book Award in the USA, this novel has been praised for its unflinching state-of-the-nation treatment of the lives of black Americans in Mississippi whilst also criticised for some of its overt literariness - it owes a considerable debt to William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying, for example. Some critics have claimed that the style takes away from the emotional impact of the novel, but I found this book genuinely moving and utterly compelling.
Told through the perspective of a young mother, Leonie, her son Jojo and the ghost of an ex-convict, the novel bridges the gap between contemporary, post-Katrina Missippi and the world of Jojo's grandparents. The novel is centred around the journey that Leonie and Jojo make to pick up Michael (Leonie's white husband) from prison, and the aftermath of his return to the family unit. Jojo's and Leonie's relationship with Pop and Mama (Leonie's parents) also forms an important aspect to the story, as does the gradual revelation of Pop's prison story from decades ago, which impacts the living and the dead.
The novel mixes banality with epic tropes and there is a good deal of humour here, as well as a ferocity to the critique of contemporary America. The writing arguably approaches poetry on occasion and, even if the comparison with Faulkner leaves this novel in the shadow of the works it is indebted to, this is absolutely worth your time.
