Summary: A boy experiences racism, addiction, and responsibility in Mississippi.
Rating & Recommendation: 3.5/5; recommend if you like historical fiction with a touch of mysticism.
Review: I wanted to like this a little more than I did, but I appreciated it by its end. This one is about loss of innocence and what anchors and grounds a family. It’s also about the dirtiest, ugliest parts of American history. It’s about parents who don’t want to be parents and the children who get caught in the crossfire. It’s about sins and crimes that can’t be forgiven. It’s probably more about forgiving yourself, though, which isn’t always so easy to do.
Jojo is a half black boy raised by his grandparents, with an imprisoned father, an addict mother, and a younger sister in need of care. When his father is released, he and his mother (and a cast of characters, both real and fantasized) drive to pick up his dad, who he hardly knows. It turns out to be what I can only describe as a nightmare, where he's haunted by the ghosts of his family's past, as well as the ghosts of all the souls lost to the injustices of the south.
The narration shifts between Jojo, his mother, the ghosts... I’m not a fan of lyrical and untraditional writing, so I found this hard to read. My mind drifted a lot.
The moral was subtle and between the lines, but it’s there. And it hurts. This is a sad one, and if you can handle more experimental writing, it’s worth a try. I will say I was very satisfied once I understood the title.
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