Customer Reviews
Important and beautiful, but occasionally over the top 
2008-07-10
Song Yet Sung is beautifully-written. It does an amazing job of bringing to life slavery, the quest for freedom, and the effect of both on people involved. This is, in a way, the defining story of American culture, and I look forward to the day when we've work out enough of our racism issues so that it's more fully explored in American literature.
I guess my only complaint about the story is that it was so wound up in current racial issues that it distracted from the story. I mean, seriously, we're following all these awesome characters chasing each other through swamplands, and all of a sudden we have to hear about how modern rap lyrics are too angry.
Hopefully we'll get to a place as a culture where we can have stories and movies about runaway slaves that are just high adventure, making every kid dream of planning an escape with her friends.
excellent 
2008-07-08
This story was extroadinary, my first time reading a book by mcbridge...not the last the chracters seem to come alive...great story
More please 2008-06-12
Great book! Could not put it down. I'm off to find more that this author has written....
A beautiful prophetic black slave who escapes only to evade an unusually dangerous pose of men 2008-06-09
Entertainer Leslie Uggams, who started in network TV at age 6, has decades of experience on TV and Broadway. Uggams' voice translates well to audio, enlivening the story of a pre-Civil War slave breakout and a beautiful prophetic black slave who escapes only to evade an unusually dangerous pose of men. Historical events blend with a passionate tale of change and courage in an audio highly recommended for any general-interest listening collection.
Well Done 2008-06-05
First book I read on my Kindle and what a delight. This well written story flows well. Great character development. Excellent editing. Couldn't put it down.
Great book, deserved better editing 2008-06-04
From the New York Times-bestselling author of The Color of Water comes a powerful page-turner about a runaway slave and a determined slave catcher. Nowhere has the drama of American slavery played itself out with more tension than in the dripping swamps of Maryland's eastern shore, where abolitionists such as Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman, born less than thirty miles apart, faced off against nefarious slave traders in a catch-me-if-you-can game that fueled fear and brought economic hardship to both white and black families. Trapped in the middle were the watermen, a group of America's most original and colorful pioneers, poor oystermen who often found themselves caught between the needs of rich plantation owners and the roaring Chesapeake, which often claimed their lives.
The powerful web of relationships in a small Chesapeake Bay town collapses as two souls face off in a gripping page-turner. Liz Spocott, a young runaway who has odd dreams about the future of the colored race, mistakenly inspires a breakout from the prison attic of a notorious slave thief named Patty Cannon. As Cannon stokes revenge, Liz flees into the nefarious world of the underground railroad with its double meanings and unspoken clues to freedom known to the slaves of Dorchester County as "The Code." Denwood Long, a troubled slave catcher and eastern shore waterman, is coaxed out of retirement to break "The Code" and track down Liz.
Filled with rich history-much of the story is drawn from historical events-and told in McBride's signature lyrical storytelling style, Song Yet Sung brings into full view a world long misunderstood in American fiction: how slavery worked, and the haunting, moral choices that lived beneath the surface, pressing both whites and blacks to search for relief in a world where both seemed to lose their moral compass. This is a story of tragic triumph, violent decisions, and unexpected kindness.
Eye Opening Story of Life in the Fringes of Maryland During Slavery 2008-05-30
I just finished reading a great novel of American slavery in Virginia called 'The Known World'. A double edged sword, such a wonderful piece of work also left me needing time to digest the past of our country, and I was not looking to venture into another novel about slavery. However someone literally left this book behind and I just glanced at the first pages.... to find myself unexpectedly hooked.
This author has spun a fascinating tale exposing history in the Waterman lands of Maryland, exposing the lives of the free and slave within. The entire thing is woven together with a couple of key elements: what was the powerful code used amongst the black population in the days of slavery to communicate, and what if one of that population had insight into the future of the black American?
The result is a five star novel.
A memorable story 2008-05-12
Author James McBride has crafted a memorable story about slavery on the Eastern Shore of Maryland in the 1850s. McBride combines an interesting story with a historical perspective (his story is based partly on historical events) and great writing. His characters are memorable and the atmosphere he creates totally engulfs the reader. This book succeeds on many levels and raises a number of thought-provoking questions for the reader.
Mysterious, startling and beautifully spun tale of slaves and freedom 2008-05-03
James McBride has managed the astonishing feat of pursuing two different creative career paths - jazz composer/musician and writer - without letting either interfere with the other. His 1996 debut, The Color of Water, was a memoir and tribute of a black man to his white mother. His second book, the gripping 2002 novel Miracle at St. Anna, concerned black American soldiers in the mountains of northern Italy toward the end of World War II.
The new novel, Song Yet Sung, is something else again. In 1850, beautiful young slave Liz Spocott escapes from her Maryland plantation, and encounters both slave catchers and the black underground that transmits news and helps runaway slaves via "the code" - a peoples' telegraph sent by quilts, rope knots, and the slam of a blacksmith's hammer. Liz is also a little tetched: she's rumored to be a "two-headed woman, a dreamer, a conjurer," because she has visions of the future. More than a few folks are pursuing her, from Patty Cannon, a tough and profane slave catcher (a real person, McBride reveals in an afterward), with her crew of unsavory white and black thugs; to Denwood Long, "The Gimp," who comes out of retirement from slave catching for the huge reward Liz's owner has offered for the girl's return.
Deceptively simple, the narrative is clean, spare, and relentless. McBride's prose reminds me of the proverbial duck: smooth and tranquil above the surface to mask the furious paddling of novelistic invention and research underneath. The characters, from poor white laborers and venal lawmen to black teen slaves, are rich and complex. Some of the best scenes depict natural enemies feeling each other out in guarded conversations and coming to truces of potential benefit to both sides.
McBride offers a fecund portrait of the Delaware peninsula, as well: the marshy, almost jungle-like land on the east side of Chesapeake Bay, sparsely populated by oystermen, small farms, and the occasional wildman-recluse. Though rarely fancy, the language gives a strong sense of character and place. A man is said to move "like smoke with muscles" in a fight. Someone says: "Don't waste breath on him; he's deader'n yesterday's beer."
Trust me on this: Song Yet Sung (and Miracle at St. Anna) are more intense and startling than I can convey. Scenes don't make sense yet somehow feel right. The only possible misstep are Liz's visions of what are easily recognizable as hip-hop gangstas, Martin Luther King's march on Washington, and other specific snapshots of black American history a century and more away.
Miracle at St. Anna was recently filmed in Tuscany by Spike Lee, with a cast that includes James Gandolfini and John Turturro and a release date of October 2008. McBride wrote the screenplay. Meanwhile, he has composed songs for Anita Baker, Grover Washington, and Gary Burton, and played tenor sax in Little Jimmy Scott's band. One shakes one's head: just being able to write a novel as beautiful as this would be enough for anyone else.
Late arrival of a good book. 2008-05-03
I ordered this book as well as another book for a book club reading. My order was being sent to an overseas address so I ordered a month in advance. My order was not only lost but the replacement order came too late to read the book ordered in February for my April book club. Although when I sent a request to track my order the response was immediate and the book came as priority less then a week later, it was still too late to read the book and participate in the book club discussion. But, this will not stop me from ordering again because for this one slip up, I have several successful orders sent to me in Japan. Ok the book, it is fantastic. I loved The Color of Water and McBride does not disappoint with this book either.
