This post contains SPOILERS for
– Let Us Descend
– Sing, Unburied, Sing

Beautiful through lines connect Jesmyn Ward’s latest novel Let Us Descend with two of her previous works:

• Sing, Unburied, Sing
• Mother Swamp

For example, in this post I’ll be discussing how The Water Aza yearns for in Let Us Descend is the same water that Richie yearns for in Sing, Unburied Sing. (The Water is an afterlife or parallel spiritual world concept in these novels.)

The Echoes between Novels: Traveling to The Water and Children Singing

The spirit world, known as The Water, in Let Us Descend is the same place—with the same ethereal song—that Richie and so many souls yearn for in Sing, Unburied, Sing.

(Re: in Sing, Unburied, Sing “the water” is not capitalized.)

Both books contain several moments explaining what The Water is. The best place to start, in my opinion, for seeing the connections is in Let Us Descend Chapter 10. There, in a conversation that takes place between Aza and Annis, Aza is unusually forthcoming. She explains the relationship between children singing, the water, and the way to travel between worlds.

Notes:
This excerpt is abridged to show dialogue only.
I added “Az:” or “An:” to make it clear who is speaking. This is not part of the book’s original formatting for this scene.
Highlights are meant to draw your eye to specific words that appear in both novels.

Let Us Descend Excerpt:

Az: “The others told me… the Water sings,” Aza says. 

An: “Sings?” 

Az: “Yes,” Aza says. “They could not hear the words. But they said they heard the voices. The Water has many voices. The people…[…]They sing with the Water. They sing back to it.” 

[…]

An: “Do you hear it here?” 

Az: “I have heard something like it from children,” she whispers. 

An: “In me?” 

Az: “It wails from most children. Comes like a ululation from some adults. […] Most don’t know it for what it is. For being able to see from this place to others, speaking to spirit, for hearing the Water.”

— Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, Chapter 10: Sweet Harvest, page 221

Traveling to The Water in Sing, Unburied, Sing

A spirit explains to Richie, like Aza explains to Annis, traveling to The Water:

“I can take you across the waters of this world to another. This place binds you. This place blinds you. Keep the scale, even if you cannot fly.”

— Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Chapter 9: Richie, page 191

Richie cannot hear The Water’s song clearly enough to travel there.

“I can hear the sound of the waters the scaly bird will lead me over tumbling with the wind […] And I sing songs without words. The songs come to me out of the same air that brings the sound of the waters: I open my mouth, and I hear the rushing of the waves.”

— Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Chapter 12: Richie, page 240

“I thought once I knew, I could. Cross the waters. Be home. Maybe there, I could”—the word sounds like a ripped rag—“become something else. Maybe, I could. Become. The song.”

[….]

“I hear it. Sometimes. […]The song. In snatches. The stars. A record. The sky. A great record. The lives. Of the living. Of those beyond. See it in flashes. The sound. Beyond the waters.”

— Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Ch 15: Jojo, page 281

Children Singing in Sing, Unburied, Sing

Young children know The Water’s song and therefore have means to open the pathways between this world and the spirit’s world. That’s what Aza tells Annis and what’s demonstrated in Sing, Unburied, Sing twice.

Mam’s friend has a rare adulthood connection to The Water. Plus, her position as a midwife allows her to hear children singing in utero.

“Marie-Therese herself could hear. Could look at a woman and hear singing: If she was pregnant, could tell her when she going to have a baby, what sex the baby going to be.”

— Sing, Unburied, Sing by Jesmyn Ward Chapter 2: Leonie, page 40

In the final scene, Kayla (three years old) knows The Water’s song and sings the unburied home to The Water.

“Shhh” like I am the baby and she is the big brother, says “Shhh” like she remembers the sound of the water in Leonie’s womb, the sound of all water, and now she sings it.

Home, they say. Home.

— Sing, Unburied, Sing: A Novel by Jesmyn Ward (Kayla singing in the final lines of the book)

More Echoes: Doors, Spirits Staying Earthside, & No Straight Lines

Here is another look at how Let Us Descend and Sing, Unburied, Sing intertwine regarding the afterlife. To see the connections, rereading the dialogue between Jojo and Mam in Chapter 11 of Sing, Unburied, Sing is essential. It occurs in the conversation on page 236 when JoJo asks Mam about death:

Notes:
This excerpt is abridged to show dialogue only.
I added “J:” or “M:” to make it clear who is speaking. This is not the format of the novel.
Highlights are meant to draw your eye to specific words that appear in both novels.

Sing, Unburied, Sing Excerpt:

J: “After, Mam,” I say. “What happens when you pass away?” 

M: “It’s like walking through a door, JoJo.” 

J: “But you won’t be no ghost, huh, Mam?” 

M: “Can’t say for sure. But I don’t think so. I think that only happens when the dying’s bad. Violent. The old folks always told me that when someone dies in a bad way, sometimes it’s so awful even God can’t bear to watch, and then half your spirit stays behind and wanders, wanting peace the way a thirsty man seeks water […] That ain’t my way.”

M: “I’ll be on the other side of the door. With everybody else that’s gone before.” 

J: “How?” 

M: “Because we don’t walk no straight lines. It’s all happening at once. All of it. We all here at once. My mama and daddy and they mamas and daddies.”

Chapter 11: Jojo, page 236

Doors (to Other Worlds) in Let Us Descend

Aza tries to keep Annis from the doorway that Mam talks about in Sing, Unburied, Sing:

“Aza’s presence feels different now, as if she is standing in a doorway, obstructing the path from one room to another.”

— Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward, Chapter 10: Sweet Harvest, page 219

Spirits Staying Earthside in Let Us Descend

Aza answers Annis’s question about where souls go using the same language Mam uses in Sing, Unburied, Sing:

“Some stay here. They leave their bodies but they are tied to this place. When their deaths are awful, they remain.”

— Let Us Descend, by Jesmyn Ward, Chapter 10: Sweet Harvest, page 219

Straight Lines in Let Us Descend

When Aza shares a prophecy she procured for Annis, it echoes Mam’s explanation of the universe to Jojo. 

“The universe is no straight line, no narrow road. The universe is a riddle, a slant gathering of places, of voices, of happenings. But she who foretells sees a path, the most likely path, for you to be free.”

— Let Us Descend by Jesmyn Ward Chapter 6: Surrender, page 125

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How To Annotate This Information Across Books

These connections across books can be tricky to annotate. I recommend one of two methods:

(1) Use a very unique type of tab or a unique color to mark the pages discussed in this post. Combine that with liberal and generous margin notes near your tabs, so you can find your way back and forth between the books.

(2) You can also create an index that lists out the categories of connections (e.g., The Water, Children Singing, Straight Lines, Doorways, Spirits Staying Earth-side) and the page numbers for those passages.

If you are digitally annotating on a Kindle:

First, choose a phrase that will serve as a label for all these connections. My copies of Sing, Unburied, Sing and Mother Swamp are on my Kindle. My label on highlighted passages demonstrating connections between the books is “LUD SUB MS Connections.” (LUD is short for Let Us Descend, SUB is short of Sing, Unburied, Sing…) Under this label, I have typed out the explanation and notes.

Check Out This Information on Bookstagram

On my Bookstagram account (@annotatewithsara), I created an infographic carousel with this information in a condensed, bite-sized, and shareable form.