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Title: The Known World (Today Show Book Club # 17) by Edward P. Jones, Free Kevin ISBN: 0-06-056943-3 Publisher: HarperAudio Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 Format: Audio Cassette Volumes: 4 List Price(USD): $39.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.21 (28 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: An informative read
Comment: "The Known World" explores the dynamics of race, class, love and justice is an environment where former slaves become slave owners. At first thought, one might ponder how could a slave obtain his freedom and then become a slave owner? Well, people do what they know. In this novel, Jones does an excellent job of demonstrating how slavery was one of the few means of accumulating wealth and status for many free blacks. It provided a promotion - of sorts - from the lowest rank in the slavery institution to the one just above it. Although black slave owners were able to accumulate greater wealth than some of their white counterparts, the fact of their race returned them to the lowest level of a society where race trumps wealth; where the color of your skin over-ranks every other aspect of your life. This dual existence is skillfully rendered throughout the novel as the characters' lives unfold and intertwine. Jones further exhibits his writing talents by creating a non-linear story that uses character interaction to move the story along instead of a chronological rendering of events as they unfold. This is a complex method of storytelling perfected by very few and managed very well by Jones.
So why, I'm thinking, did I initially rate this book a three? As I write the review it becomes clear that it's a better book than that. The fact of free black people owning slaves is an excellent topic to explore. Although I struggled early on with the text, I was determined to finish the book simply because I had not read any other covering the topic. While I knew that a few free blacks owned slaves I have never read much about it. The novel is well researched, informative and fresh . . . all of which warrants a four rating. The fact that I found the narrative voice dull and absent of any distinctive rhythm is the only thing that kept this novel from a perfect five star rating. It required a bit of persistence to finish the novel but it's worth it.
Rating: 5
Summary: The Known World
Comment: Edward P. Jones has succeeded - no, triumphed - in writing an epic scale novel about an aspect of American history little known to most of us. Scholars of African American history are well informed that during the 1800s, when slavery was a way of life for both whites and blacks, there were many permutations of who is master and who is slave. The fact that former slaves, granted their freedom by whatever means, purchased their own cadre of slaves may sound shocking to some readers and it seems that it is that audience of readers to whom Jones wishes to address this story. Based on facts and related in a way that, however lyrically written is the story line, makes this novel seem like historical biography, Jones has created a novel that is compelling, beautifully composed, and very smart. His characters are so vivid that they grow to inhabit our minds, engaging our empathy and disgust as well as any characters in fiction. The story of Henry and Caldonia Townsend, Fern Elston, the Robbins, the Skiffingtons, mad Alice, Zeddie, Loretta, Elias, Louis, Dora et cetera has been well outlined in the other reviews of this major book. But what takes this novel a step further than just being a fascinating tale is Jones' use of language. He waxes musically in describing the boundaries and inner spaces of his Known World of the plantation (closed to the slaves by the boundaries of the land and the legacy of ownership). He manages to be so intimate with the lives of his characters that he even chances to suggest the homoerotic underpinnings between Louis and Elias without calling attention to the fact that he is doing anything more than creating complete people. His use of the vernacular goes beyond merely the very tersely studied dialogue and extends into the mindset of the character who is remembering or postulating. Some novelists would elect to find that vernacular voice and then force the entire novel into its cadence, a style choice that can make a story cumbersome. Not Jones. When the story is reportage or in the minds of the non-slaves, Jones writes in melodic and eloquent prose, not unlike an orchestra in collaboration with soloists. This is a slow read and that is a good thing: speed reading THE KNOWN WORLD would deprive the reader of the warmly langorous pace of the times in which these wholly credible people 'lived.' A very fine book!
Rating: 2
Summary: Mystified in McLean
Comment: It's difficult for me to understand the critical acclaim, and resulting commercial success, that this story has received. Sure, it's built around an interesting premise (black slave owners) and obviously involved substantial research, but there are serious stylist flaws that made it a difficult and distracting read for me.
While some authors are able to employ shifting points of view and out-of-sequence plotting to enhance the thematic and emotional appeal of a story (The Hours by Cunningham being a fine recent example) these techniques are employed so sloppily here that it becomes a huge distraction. The lengthy recitations of family trees, population statistics and other historical fodder further interrupt the flow. As if sensing the reader's difficulty in keeping track of the characters, the author (or more likely his editor) feels compelled to affix silly tags to characters like "the Night Walker" and "the seeker of young stuff" when they pop up again after some unwelcomed detour or another.
Mr. Jones's dialogue and descriptive passages are at times quite satisfying, and one can only hope that he'll find a more coherent narrative structure to showcase his talents in future endeavors.
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Title: Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones ISBN: 0060566280 Publisher: Amistad Press Pub. Date: 14 August, 2003 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: The Namesake : A Novel by Jhumpa Lahiri ISBN: 0395927218 Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Co Pub. Date: 16 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Love by Toni Morrison ISBN: 0375409440 Publisher: Knopf Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $23.95 |
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Title: The Great Fire: A Novel by Shirley Hazzard ISBN: 0374166447 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 14 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
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Title: Brick Lane: A Novel by Monica Ali ISBN: 0743243307 Publisher: Scribner Pub. Date: 09 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $25.00 |
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