Some Sing, Some Cry

By: Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza

Narrated by: Robin Miles

Length: 26 hrs and 27 mins

Publisher's summary

Audible presents the multigenerational epic Some Sing, Some Cry. Created by Ntozake Shange and Ifa Bayeza, this audiobook takes listeners on a journey through Reconstruction, two world wars, the Harlem renaissance, and Vietnam to modern day America.

Some Sing, Some Cry begins at the threshold of one family’s freedom. We meet Betty Mayfield, newly emancipated from Sweet Tamarind, a lush and haunted rice plantation off the Carolina coast. Betty and her feisty teenage granddaughter Eudora are leaving for the mainland, bringing with them the ghosts, scars, and songs they have carried for so long as they meet unknown challenges ahead. From there, we meet seven generations of Mayfield men and women, and hear the songs that provide the score to their lives. Acclaimed narrator Robin Miles goes beyond the prose to transform song lyrics sprinkled throughout the book into beautiful music, making this a uniquely rich literary and audio experience.

Playwright, poet, and novelist Ntozake Shange’s Obie Award-winning for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf will be a star-studded major motion picture this fall, directed by Tyler Perry.

Ifa Bayeza is an Edgar Award-winning playwright, producer, and conceptual theater artist.

Yale Drama School-trained Robin Miles has appeared on stage and TV and narrated over 100 audiobooks.

Free with this audiobook: an exclusive interview with the authors.

©2010 Ntozake Shange, Ifa Bayeza (P)2010 Audible, Inc.

Critic reviews

“If there are shoulders modern African-American women's literature stands upon they belong to Ntozake Shange who revolutionized theater and literature with her iconic work for colored girls who have considered suicide/when the rainbow is enuf in the 1970's. Any of us writing today are inheritors of her genius. Some Sing, Some Cry will show her to be as potent and irrepressible a force as she was thirty years ago.” (Sapphire, author of Push)

“In this epic saga, the sister-sister author combination of Bayeza and Shange offers a richly detailed and boldly colored account of one family’s experience in slavery and its legacies for the generations that followed. Some Sing, Some Cry is both moving and arresting.” (Annette Gordon-Reed, author of the Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award winner The Hemingses of Monticello: An American Family)

“This is a complex poetic treatise on race, culture, love, and family, the use of regional vernacular, dialect, and pure song, resulting in a provocative fictional history.” (Publishers Weekly)

"Vibrant... Some Sing, Some Cry is Shange and Bayeza at their poetic best." (Essence)

"Keeps the reader turning page after page…. This story of lifesaving music and heartbroken maternity is engaging from start to finish. The Mayfield women are hilarious and sexy, gorgeous and strong." (New York Times Book Review)

Great story!!!

Would you consider the audio edition of Some Sing, Some Cry to be better than the print version?

I consider the audible edition comparable to the text. I use audibles with students to increase their auditory comprehension.

What did you like best about this story?

I have a love Gullah so this family's story gave a chance to relish this dying culture.

Have you listened to any of Robin Miles’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Definitely ans she seems to be a lover of Gullah.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

The narrator was believable.

Well written generational story

What did you like best about this story?

It's a long book and though there may have been sometimes I lost focus the story was interesting and easy to follow throughout the generations.

Have you listened to any of Robin Miles’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

No

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

No, it was a solid story. there are times in the beginning as with any book of this time frame and perspective that it is hard to hear how ugly the times were, but I wouldn't say extreme reactions. Though there were expected reactions of discomfort, it is still uncomfortable and should be.

Any additional comments?

Well written and narrated and the music was an added treat!

Some Good, Some Not So Much

Robin Miles does an excellent job of reading the many compelling characters in Ntozake Shange's and Ifa Bayeza's well-written epic novel that spans from Reconstruction to modern times. I give it four stars and not five for two reasons:

1. A few production mistakes. Some of the re-reads and recording errors were not edited out, so we hear the narrator read a few pieces twice. I've never heard that before in an Audible book!

2. Some factual errors from the authors take me out of the book and make me wonder about the accuracy of the rest. One example is a couple of characters join the "Air Force" during WWII, only there wasn't an Air Force then--the Army Air Corps was a division of the U.S. Army.

I look forward to more audio books from Robin Miles!

A different view of America

I really enjoyed the story. I loved going through history with Ma Bette's family! ❤️

I Sang, I Cried

Absolutely beautiful. The collaboration of the two sisters and the narrator is a success! This book has left me with the dilemma of what could I possibly read next? Seven generations through love, music, and social changes took me on a ride of emotion and sent me to the computer for research. BRAVO!!

a bit too long

I liked this book - more at the beginning than toward the middle/end. There is a lot of interesting history, and the characterization is good, but the authors covered so much time and so much change that the story became a little tiresome. Dividing the material into two books might have been better.

Some Sing, Some Cry

I enjoyed the rich and historic journey this book took me on! It was beautifully written and I appreciated the point of view that was highlighted. I have never enjoyed a reader so much! I found myself singing along with her as if I knew the songs! She nailed every dialect and every music style with expert ease! Thanks for the extraordinarily emotional read! I also enjoyed the authors interview at the end.

Some good, some bad

For the first hour or so, I really had to convince myself to stick with the book - since I had heard so much about it. It did get better, and I am glad I stayed til the end, but overall I think the book is a bit over-hyped. It was so long, that by the end I had lost track of who's who. The performance, however, was 5 star. The narrator sang everything from spirituals to jazz - amazing!

Great narration vs. story and production problems

While I understand the grand sweep of black history thing, the resulting book struck me as more of a soap opera consisting of a collection of dramas – most of which do not stand on their own. I found myself wishing the book would just finish up and hoping that there might be some redemption in the end.

To make matters worse, there were shocking production issues with this audio book. Much of download 2 is haunted by sibilants, and there are 2 places where the narrator corrects herself and starts over.

On the positive side, the narrator is generally excellent. Miles is very easy on the ear, and it's easy to follow the characters within a conversation. OTOH, she doesn't have a large enough repertoire of male voices to cover all of the characters in the book. Several males ended up with the same narrated voice. Her singing is a mixed bag. It was strongest earlier in the book and weakest with the opera.

Beautifully told history but too drawn out

After I listened to the interview of the authors at the end of the audiobook I understood why the story seemed so drawn out and sometimes disjointed. It was written in "sections" by the two sisters so their styles differed. The characters were drawn in great detail then just disappeared from the story. The narration was excellant and listeners get to enjoy the singing parts as well. The story is fascinating, the women interesting, the history relevant, but as one of the authors said, "It could have been at least three novels". It is sad that the authors came to the conclusion that any woman who followed her dreams had to give up on her personal life and other women gave up their dreams for a man and family.