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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Feb 2008, 368 pages
Paperback:
Jan 2009, 384 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Lucia Silva
Buy This Book
Suspenseful, cinematic, lushly detailed, and filled with almost mythically
colorful characters, Song Yet Sung demands a film adaptation from the
very first page. But if you wait for it to come to a theater near you, you'll
miss the easy music of James McBride's lyric styling. His third person narration
recalls a storyteller's tone, relishing the story and the telling of it, not
afraid to embellish a little to bring out the emotional undertone and engage the
audience. He draws the reader close, but his sweet prose softens the brutal
facts that shape the story, allowing the reader to wade into the terrible
history, instead of reeling away.
On one level, Song Yet Sung is an adventure tale of the antebellum
American south, revolving around the complex nature of the relationships formed
by the institution of slavery. But in McBride's sensitive and sympathetic
handling of all of his characters, slave-catchers included, the story also
reveals the many ways in which a person can be enslaved to an idea, to history,
to another person, or to himself. As the lines of freedom blur, the real terror
lies in the choices: to save or to abandon, to kill or be killed, to escape or
to fight, to reveal or keep the secret, to dream or to give up.
I found Song Yet Sung such a good, old-fashioned read - dramatic plot,
broad characters, redemptive themes - that I wanted it to be perfect.
Unfortunately, it suffers from a few facile conclusions and implausible
resolutions, and the central dream motif becomes heavy-handed as the novel
progresses. Still, so engaging are its many merits that choosing to forgive its
minor flaws offers the possibility of an up-all-night read that runs much deeper
than the usual fare.
This review was originally published in The BookBrowse Review in February 2008, and has been updated for the
January 2009 edition.
Click here to go to this issue.
If you liked Song Yet Sung, try these:
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