James McBride Interview

Copperfield's Books: What is the “Song Yet Sung” referred to in the title of your novel?

James McBride: Simple: It’s the second verse to the Negro spiritual “Free At Last.” Don’t give that away or you’ll spoil it for the reader.

CB: Was the musical reference in any way an acknowledgment of your dual professional life as a writer and a musician?

JM: Not really. Music and writing are so different. Music and writing basically make slaves of those of us who are stupid enough to try to make them our mistresses. You can love one or the other, but you can’t make love to both at the same time.

CB: How would you describe Song Yet Sung?

JM: It’s a story about an escaped female slave and the slave catcher bent on catching her. On a deeper level, it’s about the web of relationships that existed during slavery.

CB: How closely are the events in Song Yet Sung based on actual history?

JM: The two main women characters Liz Spocott and Patty Cannon, are based on real figures who hail from the eastern shore of Maryland, albeit at different times. (The Spocott character is based on) Harriet Tubman, the great abolitionist, who was born in Bucktown, MD, and for many years prior to the civil war, she moved up and down Dorchester County like a ghost, leading, at least by some accounts, as many as 300 African Americans to freedom. Patty Cannon, of nearby Caroline County, was one of the most celebrated women criminals in the history of Maryland and southern Delaware. She and her gang, which was said to number as many as 30 men at times, kidnapped African Americans, slave or free, and sold them south. Both were well known to blacks and whites at the height of their prowess, and feared for different reasons.

CB: Your main character in Song Yet Sung is a young woman, and there are other strong female characters as well. The main characters in your previous novel, Miracle at St. Anna, were men, but your mother was the dominant personality in your bestselling memoir, The Color of Water. Was any of this the result of conscious choice, or did it just arise organically from the story at hand?

JM: I just went with the story at hand. I’m not afraid of strong women characters. I was raised by one. I confess, however, that getting into the head of a female character to check her thought processes is little different than taking a male character’s pulse. Women characters tend to be deep, and very hip to the emotional complexities that are the pitfalls which most male characters either bumble past drunkenly, or stumble into face first.

CB: Once again you are exploring the themes of race and identity and transforming love, as you’ve done in your first two books, even though they were very different from one another. Does it surprise you as you move along with your writing career how strongly these themes grip you?

JM: I create books that have a piece of me in them, and with that comes the element of race and class that other writers choose to ignore. For me, identity is everything. It powers everything in the world: I am a Christian, a Jew, a Muslim, an American, an Arab… what do these words mean?

CB: Were you at all intimidated by the fact that other distinguished fiction writers have taken on the subject of slavery, starting with Toni Morrison?

JM: I deeply admire Toni Morrison. In fact, The Bluest Eye changed my life in many ways. But as a musician, you learn to play your song. Just play your instrument. There are always going to be other cats that can play better than you. To change this world, we need a Big Band of Toni Morrisons, a Duke Ellington-sized band of Toni Morrisons. I’d be happy to be the guy who carts their instruments into the room.

CB: Spike Lee has recently optioned the film rights of your first novel, Miracle at St. Anna. How closely will you be involved in the making of the film?

JM: I wrote the script for it. I worked with Spike closely for about a year. I did a tremendous amount of rewriting on that script. Spike is brilliant. Demanding. He works harder than anyone I’ve ever worked with. I used to brag to friends that “no one can work harder than me,” but I have to concede that Spike’s got me beat there. That’s one reason why he’s so successful, I suppose, his talent notwithstanding.

CB: What do you hope readers take away from Song Yet Sung?

JM: Things are not what they seem. We are all human. We are all raised to follow a certain set of rules and mores, and in order to live a full life, we have to challenge those rules and mores from time to time or our lives will not be full, our children will be complacent, and we will not be doing God’s work.