El mundo conocido

Ambitious, Interesting, Disorganized

In an interview, Edward P. Jones disclosed that The Known World took form around two significant moments. Firstly, when he learned that Black people had once owned slaves, and secondly, when he read a thin paperback in high school about a Jewish man who decided to join the Nazi party and acted contrary to expectations.

The Known World is an ambitious novel that endeavors to描绘 the world of 1855 after Henry Townsend's recent death. His passing casts a cloud of uncertainty, leaving behind his widow, Caldonia, and the undetermined fate of the slaves he bought to work his land.
Although the plot is interesting, the book is disorganized. It encompasses numerous characters and rapidly shifts time periods. I often found myself having to stop and reread as the storytelling was so cumbersome. For instance, the text would suddenly state something like "and this person lived to be 93 years old and had 235 grandchildren."
In The Known World, there are several references to Adam and Eve, and even to Milton's Paradise Lost. My favorite author, Philip Pullman, loves to discuss this topic and how in his works, he wanted his characters to find their way back to The Garden by taking the long way around. So, the quote on page 329, “There was a long way around but he chose not to take it,” stood out.
There is a character named Anderson Frazier in The Known World who creates and distributes pamphlets and interviews Fern Elston. In my view, this pamphlet could have provided a framework to systematically organize the characters, rather than resulting in a jumbled and confusing mess of characters and timelines.
The Known World has some unforgettable moments, but the disorganization of the narrative detracts from the enjoyment of the reading experience.

The Green Light at the End of the Dock (How much I spent):
Hardcover Text – $13.87 on Amazon
Audiobook – 1 Audible Credit (Audible Premium Plus Annual – 24 Credits Membership Plan $229.50 or roughly $9.56 per credit)

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In this book, I made a discovery that there were once black slaveholders in the US. I had always thought that only white people could own slaves during the era when owning slaves was like owning property, during that pre-Abolition time, those sad and dark days in American history.

Black Edward P. Jones (born 1951) penned this historical epic novel, The Known World, based on the lesser-known fact that there were some black slaveholders (black people owning black slaves) in the state of Virginia during the time when slavery was legal in the US. Wikipedia states:

\n  \"Slavery in the United States was a form of unfree labor which existed as a legal institution in North America for more than a century before the founding of the United States in 1776, and continued mostly in the South until the passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution in 1865.[1] The first English colony in North America, Virginia, first imported Africans in 1619, a practice earlier established in the Spanish colonies as early as the 1560s.[2] Most slaves were black and were held by whites, although some Native Americans and free blacks also held slaves; there were a small number of white slaves as well.[3]\"\n

The winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Award for Fiction, The Known World is one of the most memorable reads of my year. It's not an easy book to get through. This 388-page novel left me with a heavy chest each time I closed it. Every page is filled with gloom and sadness. The novel is masterfully told with lyrical prose that creates a vivid and expansive canvas of imagery in one's mind while reading. In that big canvas are numerous memorable and three-dimensional characters, most of them black slaves. No character is simply all bad or all good. The detailed description of the sceneries of a fictional county called Manchester and the true-to-life depictions of the characters are exceptionally striking, making me slow down my reading to savor the story and hold on tightly to each character, cheering them on. Reading the last page left me with a heavy heart. I didn't want to let go of that image of Manchester and say goodbye Please don't go yet to the characters who had become a part of my literary world. The world that resides in the recesses of my brain, the world known only to me, populated by people I met only in my readings.

In terms of writing, Jones extensively employs the technique called prolepsis, which I first came across while reading Muriel Sparks' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961). Jones explained this in an interview (appendix of the book), saying that he is like the God of those characters, so he knows what happened in the life of each character from the moment they were born until the time of their death. The most moving example of this usage was with the character of the child Tessie. One fine day in September 1855, their mistress Caldonia saw the 5-year-old Tessie playing with a wooden toy horse. Caldonia said to the child: That is very nice, Tessie, to which Tessie responded, My papa did this for me. In January 2002, on her deathbed, the old Tessie asked her caretaker to retrieve the wooden toy horse from the attic. While holding the toy, she took her last breath, saying the same thing: My papa did this for me.

My heart seemed to stop beating. Tears welled up in my eyes. That scene is just one of the many moving scenes about those slaves during that time in the history of Virginia when black people were traded as if they were not human but mere properties.

I could make this review extremely long. There are so many wonderful things I would like to say here, but I'm afraid that no review can truly do justice to a book as outstanding as this.

This is a very good book. I have to admit that while reading this book about slavery, I felt a bit ignorant. I never knew that free (former) slaves actually bought and owned slaves themselves. It's just another thing that I didn't learn in American history.

The book has many characters, but they are not overwhelming. There is a man who worked hard to buy his freedom and eventually that of his wife and later their child. However, he watched their child prosper and then purchase slaves for himself. The book also focuses on his slaves and their relationships.

There is also the sheriff and his wife who are given a slave girl as a wedding gift. Even though they are against slavery, they raise her and think of her as their "child". All of these stories come together in "The Known World". It offers a complex and detailed look at the institution of slavery and the various people affected by it.

When Toni Morrison embarked on her research for "Beloved," she unearthed a horrifying cache of instruments. She was well aware that slaves endured routine whippings, starvation, rape, and hangings. However, the discovery of specially crafted tools came as a shock: metal bits forced down throats, iron masks locked onto faces, and spiked collars clasped around necks. Her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel reintroduced these atrocities into the national consciousness, vividly demonstrating that the cruelties of slavery extended far beyond arduous labor and physical privation.

Edward Jones' "The Known World" uncovers another peculiar aspect of American slavery, once again highlighting the perverse distortions it inflicted on the human spirit. As strange as it may seem, in Louisiana, Virginia, and South Carolina, a small number of free blacks owned their own plantations and slaves. This was a tenuous arrangement, as blacks who were freed or managed to purchase their freedom had little incentive to remain in the South. The laws governing their status and property rights were ambiguous and easily manipulated by any white person.

Jones uses this precarious situation as the backdrop for a novel about a group of black and white Virginians who attempted, sometimes nobly and often viciously, to preserve their world in the face of inevitable collapse. To the extent that Morrison transformed a surreal tale of American slavery into a mythic narrative, Jones has crafted a companion series of stark anecdotes that become part of the national legend. In a measured voice that never rises to match the agonies and absurdities he describes, he weaves back and forth through decades and across state lines, assembling a seemingly random collection of brief scenes that gradually coalesce into a stunning portrayal of moral confusion.

This is an incredibly complex novel. The writing is dense, the structure is non-linear, and there is an abundance of characters.

It reads very much like a true historical account of a specific place, Manchester County in Virginia, and a particular time, the pre-Civil War 1800s. It could almost pass for a non-fiction book as each character feels so vivid and real, with their personal stories and histories being highly authentic.

The author even goes to the extent of telling us what becomes of many of them ten, twenty, or even fifty years in the future. And yet, Edward P. Jones himself states: "The county and town of Manchester, Virginia, and every human being in those places, are products of my imagination… The census records I made up for Manchester were, again, simply to make the reader feel that the town and the county and the people lived and breathed in central Virginia once upon a time…"

Well, I was truly duped. At first, I really believed such a county existed and the data presented were genuine facts. As my son walked through the living room, I even shouted out some statistic or other and asked if he had ever read about such a thing in his history classes. He couldn't recall, but it sounded 'familiar'. Right, because much of this could have been true, yet it wasn't. The institution of slavery, of course, was all too real and cruel, and that's what this book is about, and this is the truth. Slavery in all its forms is evil.

Henry Townsend is a black farmer. He is a former slave who, with the purchase of freedom and some land, becomes a slave owner himself. Henry and his wife Caldonia own a small plantation near the border of his former master's much larger one. I could not fathom why on earth a freed man would ever want to enslave another human being. Henry and other black slave owners like him justify their actions: "Henry had always said that he wanted to be a better master than any white man he had ever known. He did not understand that the kind of world he wanted to create was doomed before he had even spoken the first syllable of the word master."

Well, as the old saying goes, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions.' When Henry dies, all hell breaks loose, and we begin to see the ill-fated consequences of an institution that is immoral and corrupt.

A narrative that seems to jump around in time and between characters eventually comes together into a whole as consequences and events snowball out of control. Lives are permanently changed. Some for the worse, others (we hope) for the better. They all become woven together much like the massive tapestry hanging on the wall of another place in another time. Each is part of the story. Everyone is responsible for the events which passed, were allowed to pass despite the huge injustice to humanity.

This book is not easy to read. The structure is challenging and the topic is gloomy, albeit important. What happens to the people we grow to care for is often horrifying and heartbreaking. But it is well-written and extremely impactful. An important novel which is well worth your time and attention if you are up for the challenge. It won't suit everyone, but if you are at all interested, I encourage you to pick this one up.

"What I feared most at that moment is what I still fear: that they would remember my history, that I, no matter what I had always said to the contrary, owned people of our Race."

2.5-stars, really.

Here is a perfect example of a book that I should love, and yet.... I didn't. The book was a lot of work, and for me, very little reward. I think most of my issues stem from the style and structure of the novel.

The third-person, omniscient narrator was distracting from the very beginning of the read. I tried to hold off on judging it, hoping to trust Jones and his choice.

The non-linear narrative, which I usually don't have a problem with, felt super-clunky here and was also distracting.

The made-up references were another issue. Jones would cite sources and details that seemed to add an air of gravitas, but none of it was actually real. I know it's fiction, but it still felt a bit weird to me. Social commentary in fiction is common, but I felt like Jones did a lot of research for this book and then didn't fully utilize it.

All of these elements combined to create a really awkward flow and convoluted storytelling. I think the book could lose 50-100 pages and be a tighter, better story.

In case you think I'm a lazy reader, I'm not! I love a meaty, tough read. Jones' story is definitely both of those things. He explores the issue of free black people owning slaves in Virginia and gives us a large cast of active characters. But it all felt so surface-y. We get the actions and reactions, but not the motivations or emotions. I would have loved to go deeper into the morally dodgy landscape that Jones is navigating.

Jones has received a lot of critical acclaim and recognition over his career, winning numerous awards. The man clearly knows what he's doing, and the respect he's earned is fairly universal. The Known World is an important story, but is just shining a light on the issues enough? I'm still back to the should. I should love this book, but it was just okay for me. People should read this book, but it's not one I would blanket recommend to all.

I'm bummed about this one and this is a terrible review/collection of thoughts. Maybe I'll become more coherent with some distance and fix it up a bit, but for now I wanted to note down something here.

(Aside #1: Moses confused me. His sudden turn into being an asshole was weird. He seemed like a lovely man, and then halfway through the book, he's a wife-beater? Where did that come from and why was he presented like that?)

(Aside #2: The cover photo of this edition is by Eudora Welty! I had no idea about her photographic prowess.)

I know there is something rather strange about me as I didn't take a liking to this book. I am well aware that it has received numerous positive reviews here, and thus people should still give it a shot. To be honest, it is the very first book this year that I simply couldn't bring myself to finish. I managed to get halfway through, hoping with each passing chapter that I would gradually become engaged in the story.

I believe my main issue lies in the way the author presented the stories. Absolutely nothing is arranged in chronological order, and it is extremely perplexing to keep jumping back and forth within the characters' lives. Half of the time, I had no idea whether the events were unfolding in the present or the past. It was just an excessive amount of effort, and I started to feel a sense of dread every time I laid eyes on the book. Perhaps one day I will give it another opportunity. However, I simply don't possess the patience at the moment.

The Known World, by Edward P. Jones, is a remarkable historical novel set in Virginia during the antebellum era. Published in 2003, it delves deep into the complex and often overlooked issue of black slave ownership by both white and black Americans.

The story unfolds in 1855 on the plantation of a black man named Henry Townsend. He was born into slavery but has now become an owner himself. This black owner dreams of a future with his fifty-acre plantation and thirty-three black slaves. His interactions with his slaves mirror those that his white owner, William Robbins, had with him.

The narrative revolves around two main characters: Henry Townsend, the black owner, and his slave, Moses. While Henry Townsend can be considered the central figure of the story, he is not a traditional hero as he lacks the typical heroic traits. Instead, he is the focal point that is examined from various angles. Alongside Townsend's life, love stories and the comical aspects of other characters are also told over several decades.

Critics have praised Jones's work. Independent critic Jan Freeman writes, "Jones employs a concise style in a familiar world, and as the story progresses, its rhythm quickens, and the writer's voice comes alive. Jones plays with language so skillfully that at times, during the story, he makes a sudden leap to the past or future, captivating the reader and astonishing them with his mastery of the pen. His awareness is so keen that it is truly nothing short of a miracle." Harper Perennial, a critic for The Guardian, also remarks, "Reading The Known World is not easy, but it is a powerful and unforgettable experience."