Song Yet Sung - Historical Fiction

Author: James McBride  
Publication Date: 2008    

Number of Pages: 368

Geographical Setting/Time Period: 19^th Century Chesapeake Bay Region (1861-1865)

Main Character(s):

Liz Spocott (Strong and beautiful runaway who sees the future);

Patty Cannon (Heartless, wicked mass slave trader);

Denwood Long (A troubled sympathetic slave hunter);

Woolman (A kind feral black man);

Amber (generous and helpful slave who knows “the code”);

Kathleen Sullivan (Kind widow who treats her slaves like family)

Plot Summary:

Liz is an injured runaway slave who can see the future in her dreams; she helps 14 other runaways escape from Patty Cannon’s attic. Patty and her posse are in constant pursuit of the runaways. “The code” protects those who know it in finding assistance in their attempts to make it to the freedom line. When two young boys, one black one white, vanish the town scrambles to find them and everyone begins to realize who can be trusted, regardless of skin color.

Appeal:

This is a slow paced novel where the characters quest for freedom is intricately described. McBride uses authentic dialect between the characters to tell the story of the runaway slaves. The search for truth and freedom add to the sense of anticipation throughout the book with an overlying bleak tone. The dual perspective that McBride offers of the Underground Railroad and “the code” with references to Harriet Tubman and the future of Martin Luther King will appeal to readers.

Brief quote: “Them dreams you got, he said, the children that’s fat and running round, Killing each other. The colored men who dress up as boys, they ain’t no different from the folks around here. Some is up to the job of being decent, and some ain’t.”(160).

Prizes or Awards: None.

Similar Works:

The Color of Water: a Blackman’s tribute to his white mother by James McBride (similar details regarding African American Men; mother and son relationships; and ethnic identity)–Reader’s Advisory Online

Someone Knows my Name by Lawrence Hill (Similar themes regarding slaves and African American women)–NovelistPlus

Reviewer’sName:LenoreSt.John

AdaptedfromSaricks,JoyceG.andNancyBrown.Readers=AdvisoryServiceinthePublicLibrary2^nd.Chicago:ALA,1997.