The Known World by Edward P. Jones Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Known World
Book Review: A Bold, Thrilling, and Powerful Novel
Summary: 5 Stars
This story would have been exciting enough based only on the fact that Edward P. Jones so boldly took the antebellum novel to a place it has never gone before; namely, to black slave-owner Henry Townsend's plantation in Manchester, Virginia. There, the "Known World" is wholly different from what one might expect. But this seemingly obvious and absurd anomaly of U.S. history, wherein black masters owned black slaves, doesn't stop with that rarely discussed fact. It is further illuminated by Jones' flights into the fantastic with observations of sentient lightning, children with the personalities of bitter grandparents, and, comically enough, freak chickens.
Mixed within this potent literary brew are some of the most original and dynamic characters, male and female, ever to step into the pages of American fiction. In fact, one of more remarkable features of Jones' amazing novel is his portrayal of how specific individuals sometimes managed to exploit the institution of slavery in order to indulge their own private needs, quirks, or agendas.
It's true that the alternating biblical density and epic expansiveness of details and events with which Jones builds his narrative can at times prove challenging. However, this same aesthetic ultimately delivers a triumphant satisfaction. Jones' Pulitzer--and any other awards received for this novel--was well earned and deserved.
by Author-Poet Aberjhani
author of The Harlem Renaissance Way Down South
and Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance (Facts on File Library of American History)
Book Review: A Prize Winner
Summary: 5 Stars
With The Known World, Edward P. Jones created a masterpiece, the kind of novel that brings much needed credibility to the Pulitzer Prize judges who named it Best Novel in 2004. The novel is set in fictional Manchester County, Virginia, some twenty years before the start of the Civil War and it focuses on an aspect of slavery that I knew very little about beforehand, the fact that there were freed blacks in the South who were themselves slave owners.
I found myself completely immersed in the world that Jones recreated, a world that was seldom pretty, one that was filled instead with flawed characters who reflected their upbringing and the times in which they lived. This is a multi-generational novel in which the author takes great care to explain how each of the characters came to be the person he ultimately was but it is not always told in strict chronological order. There are both flashbacks and jumps far into the future that add depth and historical context to the story and make this a memorable book.
The story centers on the Henry Townsend plantation, a plantation of some 33 slaves owned by a former slave whose father bought him out of slavery when Henry was a boy. Augustus, Henry's father, was a skilled furniture maker who was allowed by his owner to pocket a portion of what he earned building furniture for area plantation owners. Augustus accumulated enough money to buy his own freedom and finally saved enough to later buy the same for his wife and son. It was to the great disappointment of Augustus, a disappointment that almost separated father from son for good, that Henry eventually became a slave owner.
It is upon Henry's sudden death that the Townsend plantation is thrown into a chaos from which it never recovers. Caldonia, Henry's widow, did not have the discipline required to profitably run a plantation of 33 slaves while maintaining the distance from them required to keep their respect. She became so close to her overseer that he became bold enough to demand his own freedom, something that she denied him, causing him to lose control of himself and the other slaves for whom he had day-to-day responsibility. Some of those slaves began to run for their freedom, alone or in groups of two or three, resulting in tragedy for those left behind, both black and white.
The Known World is not a book that should be read quickly. Its story is told through the eyes of numerous characters from several families, black and white, and it can be difficult to follow until the reader feels familiar with all the names and relationships. It is one of those novels that suddenly "click" for the reader to the point that he finds himself totally taken by the world that the author has created. I regretted having turned the last page, finding myself wondering what became of the next generation and hoping that Jones will one day tell me.
Book Review: A Unique Look
Summary: 4 Stars
This novel is an excellent work of fiction that focuses on a little known fact of slavery. Its focus is on the greed and lack of integrity that were involved with the "peculiar institution" rather than the horrible actions it facilitated. This read very mcuh like Marquez's One Hundred Years of Solitude, an intricately-woven story that follows a family's downfall in a fictional city (in the case of World, it's Manchester County). There are elements of magical realism and a great depth of emotion in the characters, and the theme of decrepancy and rot in antebellum slavery is well explored. Delivered with masterful understatement, this book will stick for quite some time.Book Review: A World I Don't Want to Know
Summary: 4 Stars
This book has an interesting premise in that the slave owners are the same race as the slaves. A lot of the incidents in this book are very eye-opening because I had never thought about what happens to slaves when their master dies. It is so amazing to me that people feel that they have a right to "own" their fellow human beings, not even treating them as real people, but as possessions. The other part of the book that I found fascinating was the idea that slaves should not be educated. I kept thinking that the de-humanization of the slaves had a lot of similarities with Nazi Germany. Slavery in this country is not a history to be proud of.Book Review: A strikingly unusual story told with Biblical grandeur
Summary: 4 Stars
Henry Townsend is a black man living in the American South (in Virginia) 20 years before the Civil War. He is the free son of parents who are freed slaves.
His father, a skilled woodworker, holds especially strong convictions about the evils of slavery. Imagine what this poor man feels when his son Henry grows up to idolize a white man who is the most powerful slave-owner in the county. Even worse, Henry gets his own plantation and buys his own black slaves!
When Henry dies suddenly, his widow Caldonia struggles to hang on to his legacy. Soon Henry's empire starts to unravel as Henry's slaves start asserting their own complex personalities.
The author follows the destiny of several characters, detailing their adventures in rich, sweeping prose. The story of one character in particular - Counsel, a white man who sets fire to his lands in the wake of smallpox and roams west into Texas - rivals the fiction of Cormac McCarthy in terms of epic surrealism. A not-to-be-missed book, especially for aficionados of antebellum and Civil War stories.