 "An intricately woven tail of life during slavery" | 2009-10-06 |
| - Reviewed By resqgeek |
| This rich, complex novel transports the reader through time and space to the last decades of slavery in America, and sheds light on the lives of blacks (both slave and free) living in Virginia during this period. The story is roughly centered around the plantation of Henry Townsend, a free black man, his family, and his slaves. (That there were free black men that owned slaves is a bit jarring, but upon reflection, probably not terribly surprising.) However, this book is painting a much larger picture, and the brush strokes sweep in a wide cast of characters, black, white, Native American, rich and poor. The prose is lyrical, prone to sudden and dramatic asides, and the threads of the various stories weave around each other to form a rich, detailed cloth. This is a book you don't so much read as experience, and it truly provides the reader with a deep appreciation for the hardships and trials of life for blacks in the South during slavery. A remarkable book that does much to shed light on this dark piece of American history and to show how the institution of slavery served to corrupt an entire society. |
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 "The Known World--Edward P. Jones" | 2009-09-09 |
| - Reviewed By User: A2Z29SYVMICJ47 |
The Known World by Edward P. Jones is an inspired work of historical fiction intended to shine some light on the connotations of slavery in the United States during the 19th century.
The story sets out with Henry Townsend, a slave on the plantation of William Robbins, working as an apprentice shoe and boot maker under the tutiledge of Timmons, also a slave on the Robbin's estate. Henry becomes even better at the craft of making shoes than the man teaching him. This skill is not lost on estate owner William Robbins who begins to take Henry along on his business and social visits to the many wealthy inhabitants of Manchester County, where Henry builds up a reputation among them as a skilled bootmaker . These happy customers begin spreading the word around about Henry's expertise causing Henry to accumulate money on his own. His owner, Masta Robbins, puts some of Henry's money in the bank for him; while Henry hides the rest by digging holes in the ground and burying the money out back where he stays with his parents.
Henry continues to make fine shoes after his parents Augustus and Mildred buy his freedom from William Robbins. The money allows Henry to take on a wife, Caldonia, and get a place of his own. On this place Henry buys his own black slaves to work the land and becomes a successful free black farmer in Virginia.
When death comes suddenly upon Henry, his wife Caldonia struggles to maintain their growing estate. She is looked upon as royalty among the other blacks who are in poverty. The story expands from here as the author introduces a myriad of characters and their personal impact on one another.
Slaves buy their freedom from their owners if they are lucky to save the money somehow. This is done separately one at a time as one may buy a product at a store; more like people dealing in material commodoties , rather than human lives. When a Father and Mother buy their freedom, their children are left on the estate of the Master where they just lived. Children must be purchased in seperate transactions and are not included as "families." This was new to me.
Jones gives a voice to black women and their experience with slavery in this work as well. The woman are given roles of power and influence over others as educated teachers and property owners with considerable wealth and slaves of their own.
For many, thoughts of black slaves during this time in history have often been isolated by poverty and beatings; Jones changes that concept with his discriptive dialogues of American plantation life. I recommend this book highly as an important treatise on the social workings and mixtures of cultures in the history of our country.
Charles Hamilton Sr, Former Executive Director Northwest Teen Challenge, author of From Darkness To Light and A Step Of Faith.
[...]From Darkness To Light |
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 "Manchester County, Virginia--R.I.P." | 2009-08-13 |
| - Reviewed By daddycub |
I had a great deal of difficulty getting close to Edward P. Jones's novel about slavery in the antebellum south, specifically of the no longer existing county of Manchester, Virginia. The only thing new about _The Known World_ was its exploration of the phenomenon of some former slaves, having been freed, now owning slaves themselves. Such is the case of Henry Townsend, once a slave of white land baron, William Robbins. Henry's freedom is purchased by his long freed parents, Augustus and Mildred Townsend. Henry becomes a fairly successful farmer and buys his own slaves to work his farm. Henry dies fairly early in the book. _The Known World_ is about what happens to his farm and to his and Robbins's slaves after Henry dies.
The book has its fair share of maltreatment of both male and female slaves, white and black sexual mingling and the resulting progeny, a hard nosed white sheriff and his more tender hearted deputy. There are also those slaves who run away and the usual pursuit after them. Greedy, conniving slave traders are also well represented in the book.
I wish that Henry, who offered promise as becoming the novel's protagonist, were a more fully developed character, but his early death prevented that. Some of the characterizations are rather interesting, especially that of Fern Elston, the teacher of freed slaves, Alice, the wandering, dancing, and singing slave who lets us continually know Master Henry is dead. Alice shows some real promise as a talented artist. Then there is Moses, the slave with an independent streak, and who proves to be the most provocative character in the novel. Jones does make it a point that blacks and whites lived together seemingly as family members, while never letting the reader forget the strict rules and regulations of the master-slave relationships.
_The Known World_ has its share of sadness, even tragedy, but by the end I was disappointed by the book's lack of plot structure or a strong hero or villain who would have given the book some much needed focus. |
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| "The most profound book about slavery I've ever read" | 2009-07-09 |
| - Reviewed By koolkat735 |
The Known World is an unconventional book, the oddest facet for me being the lack of a main character. Henry Townsend serves as a sort of focal point, but he dies at the beginning of the novel; equally important are his wife Caldonia, parents Augustus and Mildred, the overseer Moses, the slaves Elias, Celeste, Stamford and Alice, the teacher Fern, Henry's former master William Robbins, and the sheriff John Skiffington and his cousin Counsel. The secondary cast, of course, is exponentially larger. Then there is the structure; the narrative jumps around a lot, primarily between the 1840s and the 1850s, but with some leaps forward or backward in time.
If you can handle all that, the result is a rich and rewarding read.
This book zeroes in on what one reviewer has called a "footnote of history": black slaveowners. Sounds like an oxymoron, right? Not so, as it turns out. If I had to name the #1 best thing about this book, I would say it's the mature, nuanced way Jones deals with the provocative issue of slavery. This is no black-and-white book that beats you over the head with "slavery is wrong!!" by wallowing in descriptions of whippings, rapes, and families forcibly separated (although at least two of the above are present); white people are not divided into the Good Guys (all of them volunteers on the Underground Railroad) and the Bad Guys (all of them racist, greedy and cruel), nor are blacks stereotyped as the good-hearted but not necessarily intelligent victims. This leads to what I would call the next best thing about this book: the authenticity of the characters. (Second best not because there's any fault with them, but because lots of books have solid characterization, while very few can take a look at something like slavery in such a thoughtful and restrained way). It's not just the realistic portrayal of individuals, each one unique despite the size of the cast, but the way they relate to one another and their known world feels entirely real. There's no placeholder for 21st century ideas here; these characters accept their world as it is, as most real people do, and try to make the best of it. This book is sometimes heartbreaking, but never revisionist.
Then there's the setting and customs, which feel three-dimensional and well-researched. Jones doesn't just tell us what the slave cabins look like, but shows us the family and community life within them. And the dialogue: not only does it flow well, but it evokes a particular accent without bogging down in dialect so strong you have to sound out the words. Need I go on?
Although this book has certainly earned its 5 stars, it's not perfect; unrelated sentences are sometimes added in the middle of paragraphs, details occasionally contradict one another (I love Jones's specificity though; he's one to tell you everything from characters' exact ages to the price of a mule), the jumping around in time can be confusing, and a couple scenes veer bizarrely into magical realism. Still, this isn't enough to really detract from the reading experience. My one caveat is, given the complexity of the book and the number of characters, that readers who try to go through this one at 10 pages a night before bed are likely to wind up frustrated; it requires serious attention. Those who have the time should not be disappointed. |
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 "Save your money" | 2008-05-19 |
| - Reviewed By donna0978 |
| This was an all right book. Get it at your library rather than buying it. |
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| "Simply Wonderful" | 2008-04-29 |
| - Reviewed By User: AY99S55VR1TLS |
| That there is an author out there who can take on such a sensitive subject and look past the indignity, heartbreak and ignominy of slavery to present the depth and complexity of his characters, to really bring them to life, is a truly wonderful prospect for us, those who derive pleasure from indulging in an unknown world, an unknown reality and a completely foreign way of life via literature. Jones is an amazing intermediary employing seemingly effortless transitions across time, race, class, and gender to allow us a window into a past that oddly enough seems not only posisble but under the circumstances he describes uncomfortably plausible. Personally, I hope that he has more similarly great works in his future. But, even if he does not, this book would be the masterpiece of the collected works of anyone but the greatest authors plying the trade today. |
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