“Sing, Unburied, Sing” Jesmyn Ward (post 5): Almost everyone agrees that Richie is a ghost, but the text inadvertently reveals that Richie is not a ghost.

Book reviews, the front book flap, and author interviews agree that one or two characters in this novel see ghosts. Richie (a deceased boy who had been known by Jojo’s grandfather, Pop) is almost universally considered to be a ghost seen by Jojo. Given (Leonie’s deceased brother), although seen by Leonie (Jojo’s mother) only when she gets high, is often considered a ghost, too.

But Richie and Jojo inadvertently reveal that Richie is not a ghost:

“ ‘I guess I didn’t make it.’ Richie laughs, and it’s a dragging, limping chuckle. Then he turns serious, his face night in the bright sunlight. ‘But I don’t know how. I need to know how.’ He looks up at the roof of the car. ‘Riv [Pop, Jojo’s grandfather] will know.’

“I [Jojo] don’t want to hear no more of the story. I shake my head. I don’t want him talking to Pop, asking him about that time. Pop has never told me the story of what happened to Richie when he ran” (1, p. 181).

A ghost would know how he died. But if Richie were one of Jojo’s alternate personalities, one inspired by the stories that Pop has told Jojo about Richie, then Richie would not know how he died if Pop had not told Jojo.

1. Jesmyn Ward. Sing, Unburied, Sing. New York, Scribner, 2017.