I'm going to have to rave a bit, because this is one of the best books I've read in the past ten years.

Jones packs in all the historical detail you could want, and of course he's hit on a subject--black slaveowners--that in and of itself is tabloid-sensational. Where lesser writers might lean too hard on the sensational aspect (or rely on it to bolster an otherwise weak narrative), Jones works it into a compelling and powerful story.

What makes it so powerful is a mix of fascinating characters who are woven into a series of overlapping plotlines. For me it's the structuring that is so brilliant (geek alert: I actually diagrammed the time shifts in the chapters as an exercise, to see when and how Jones yoked the whole thing together). This less than linear approach might be frustrating to those who just want things to be straightforward, but stick with it: the shifts provide suspense as well as texture, and they propel more than one storyline at once. They do all come together, trust me.

I also admire the overarching authorial voice in the novel, which certainly leans toward the formal, but also comes across as aware of the history it's grappling with: here and there Jones projects his voice forward for a moment, or seemingly digresses with factual material and research. Again it's all part of the tapestry and the mix, and I also think that the level of narrative awareness (which never disengages long enough to derail anything) adds another layer to the very idea of history--making the whole historical and contemporary both.

And for those of you who can do without all of the above writerly blather (a thousand pardons), you'll find in this book characters who are engaging, ignorant, cruel, earnest, sympathetic, tragic, hopeful, flawed--in short, complicated. Halfway through you'll be fighting off the impulse to skip ahead to learn everyone's fate.

Finally, I'll say that this book isn't perfect--there are aspects of what I've described above that sometimes don't work: narrative turns that do seem pointless digressions, a character or two a bit stereotypical or annoying. No matter. This book aims high, as brilliant works of art do, and the result is nothing short of amazing.

رواية العالم المعروف تبحر بك في القرن السابع عشر في ولاية فرجينا الإمريكية وما يجاورها من مدن في زمن العبودية والتاريخ الأسود الذي رافق تلك الفترة قبل الحرب الأهلية الإمريكية .
لا الرغم من عدم شهرة الرواية إلا إنها حققت ربحا في المبيعات على الرغم من بعدها عن الإثارة وفوز كاتبها "بوليترز" وكذلك تم تصنيفها على إنها رواية تاريخية حيث أمضى الكاتب 10 سنوات في كتابة مادة الرواية وهي واقعية لدرجة كبيرة وتميل للإنسانية ولا ريب في ذلك إذا علمنا بإن جونز هو الابن الوحيد لعامل مطبخ وخادمة في فندق وعملت أمه في شتى الأعمال من أجل إبنها واختفاء والده في صغره. بالرغم من أن امه لا تعرف القراءة أو الكتابة إلا إنها غرست في ابنها حب العلم. وسلوك إبنها في مجال الأدب بشكل عام وانضم في 2010 إلى الهيئة التدريسية في قسم اللغة الإنكليزية للكتابة الإبداعية في جامعة جورج واشنطون الغنية عن التعريف.
تبدأ الرواية بمقولة أدوارد بي. جزنز " طالما تساءلت روحي كيف تجاوزت كل شيء"
في الصفحات الأولى من الرواية يذكر إحصاءات مانشستر والتي هي أوسع مقاطعة في جينيا لعام 1840
حُر:2191
عبد حُر:142
هندي أحمر: 136
عبد:2191
كثرة العبيد لأنهم كانوا إما خدما أو مزاعين في الحقول . الرواية بشكل عام تتطرق إلى السود الأحرار الذين يملكون عبيدًا وكيف قام أغسطس تاونسند بشراء حريته وبعدها عمل بجد من أجل شراء حرية كل من زوجتة وولده الذي إختطف ليعمل ويكون عبدا وفيما بعد يكون هو العبد الحر ( هنري ) الذي يشتري أرضا من سيده السابق ويصلحها وتكون هي الأرض التي نشاهد فيها أغلب المشاهد والأحداث. الشخصيات التي حاول الكاتب وصفها وطريقة معيشتها وطرق التعذيب والعقوبة التي مروا بها والتي تكون أقرب للوحشية والحراسة الليلية التي إستحدثت في عهد المأمور الجديد (جون سكفينغتن) مع مجموعة من الرجال، الذي يلاقي مصرعه على يد ابن عمه في مشهد دموي. والدين الذي يدينون به الذي يتعمد فيه الكهنة على البساطة بعيدا عن العمق. وهذه أحد المشاهد الفضيعة حيث هرب ( إلياس) وعندما وجدوه قطعت أذنه من قبل أحد رجال الدورية الليلية (الهندي الأحمر- أودن) الذي سيصبح فيما بعد مراقب العمال بعد أن يهرب (موسى) الذي كان مراقبا للعمال وساعد عائلته وأليس التي إدعت الجنون على الهرب.
يذكر جونز الكندي ( اندرسن فريزر) الذي أجرى حوار بـ(فيرن) المعلمة التي درست السود الأحرار وكانت المادة التب كتب عنها عن "عجائب وغرائب الجنوبيين ، اقتصاد القطن، وحققت نجحا فيما بعد والتي كانت أقرب للسلسلة.
تتسارع الأحداث فيما بعد إلى أن نصل الفصل الأخير رسالة الأخ (كالفن) إلى أخته (كالدونيا) والتي يذكر فيها ما الذي حدث له شخصيا في 12 أبريل 1861 وهو نفس اليوم الذي حدثت فيه الحرب الأهلية الإمريكية ولا يذكر فيها أحداث الحرب إنما أمور شخصية وحياته.

فيلم وثائقي عن تاريخ العبودية في أمريكا
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDukq...

In this book I learned that there used to be black slaveholders in the US. I thought that only white people were allowed to own slaves during the time that owning slaves were like owning properties. During that pre-Abolition time. During those sad dark days in the American history.

Black Edward P. Jones (born 1951) wrote this historical epic novel, The Known World based on the not well known fact that there were some black slaveholders (black people owning black slaves) in the state of Virginia during the time in the US when owning slave is legal. Wikipedia has this to say:

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

Winner of the 2004 Pulitzer Award for Fiction, The Known World is one of the most memorable reads I had this year. It is not an easy book to read. This 388-page novel left me with a heavy chest each time I closed the book. Each page is gloomy and sad. The novel is well-told with lyrical prose creating a big canvas of imagery in one's mind while reading. In that big canvas are memorable and three-dimensional numerous characters most of them black slaves. No character is downright bad or good. The detailed description of the sceneries of a fictional county called Manchester and the true depictions of the characters are exceptionally striking that I had to slow down in my reading to savor the story and hold on *tugging to them, cheering them on* to each characters. Reading the last page left me with a heavy heart. I would not want to let go of that image of Manchester and say goodbye Please don't go yet to the characters that I already became part of my literary world. The world that resides in the recesses of my brain. The world that is known only to me populated by people who I met only in my readings.

In terms of writing, Jones extensively use the technique called prolepsis that I first encountered reading Muriel Sparks' The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie (1961). Jones explained this in the interview (appendix of the book) saying that he is the God of those characters so he knows what happened in the life of each characters from the time he/she was born up to the time his/her death. The most moving example of this use was with the character of the child Tessie. One fine day of September 1855, their mistress Caldonia saw the 5-y/o Tessie playing with a wooden toy horse. Caldonia says 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 get the wooden toy horse from the attic. While holding the toy, she breathed her last saying the same thing: My papa did this for me.

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

I can make this review very long. There are just too many good things I would like to say here but I am afraid that no review can make justice to a book as good as this.

This book was INCREDIBLY disappointing and I could not bring myself to finish it, as I have a strict rule against self-hazing. The Known World had such an interesting premise: the South just before civil war divides the country, former slaves owning slaves. This should have been an amazing book, but unfortunately, the author simply could not pull off amazing... or even moderately acceptable for that matter.

My primary problem with The Known World was that Jones literally threw characters into the story; I lost count after about two dozen cropped up within the first hundred pages. Each introduction was more hurried then the next, as new characters were strew across the page during incredibly-early points in the plot. It became impossible to distinguish one individual from another, and whatever story the author attempted to tell quickly unraveled as the identities of the plot’s participants muddled together.

Secondary to the character deluge was Jones' writing, which jumped from past, present and future events, often within the same sentence or paragraph. For example, the author would launch (another!) new character into the novel, and then portray how that character would die, decades later, all in the same sentence. If I had not been so confused and annoyed, I might have been impressed!

I suppose it was entirely possible that beneath the character inundation and convoluted time lines, The Known World contained a decent story. I simply could not torture myself by attempting to dig it out after every other page.

Should be considered an instant classic, a book to put next to Invisible Man, Beloved, and Light in August.

I'm giving up on this, hence the one star. I read about 150 pages and set it down. I don't want to take anything away from Jones' efforts to unveil the nuances of slavery, in this case black slave owners. But this book just bored me. I felt guilty, especially since I was reading it for Black History Month and it won a Pulitzer, but Marie Kondo's book has freed me of that guilt. Not for me.

Although this is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, I feel that this work could have been so much more of an epic achievement in writing but failed on many fronts. The non-linear approach to the story and its unfolding events is a complete disaster. This was compounded by the fact that the transitions between time period jumps were sloppy or non-existent. In the end, it was difficult to keep track of the characters and their interactions with each other consistently with the author's writing style. Also, the unexpected "future historical" passages were unnecessary and distracting. Plus, I was just not a fan of his choppy prose or storytelling. Simply put, had the author kept the plot in a linear fashion as originally conceived (as disclosed by the author in a postscript interview, argh!) and certain passages removed, this novel would have been an absolute classic.

Here is my review of this fantatsic novel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M43gq...

Gorgeously woven and incredibly interesting historical fiction about black slave owners, slaves, and the people who surround them in antebellum Virginia. At first I thought the shifting timeline might annoy me as being too postmodern, but the storytelling is epic and the characters are richly textured and sympathetic.

Jones doesn't let anyone get away without blame in this book, but he manages to infuse even the most vile characters with enough motivation and rationalization for their actions. He understands that mostly good people do terrible things - it forces the reader to get out of the paradigm of evil that they've been comfortable falling in to. We are all capable of evil, and its best to know it so you can recognize the signs. Seriously, this book is marvelous. My favorite book I've read this year and I can't recommend it enough.

Another disappointing Pulizter choice. The narrative jumps from present to past to future which can be wonderful when there are characters one cares about but I found I didn't care much about any of them. There are almost no positive marital, sibling, or parental relationships. While the value systems of the time period are hard to understand today, no one in this book seemed to have real value system at all. The book may be revealing to many who were not aware of the practice of free African Americans owning other African Americans as slaves, but there was never a character sympathetic enought for me to get the slightest glimpse of how they could justify this behavior from the white or black perspective. The majority of the charcters lack any real introspection and their motivation is unclear. While this may be a literary puzzle for the reader in some cases, here it was just frustrating. This book does seem to fit the tendency I see in modern literature. The tragic flaw was the downfall of a hero, a person admirable excpet for some weakness that becomes their undoing. Today it is more likely for a writer to paint unadmirable characters with one redeeming quality that is suppossed to atone for their other breaches of morality. Or redeeming qualities are viewed as an impediment to getting what one truly wants. We seemed to be determined to create characters that are "real" or are they just easier to compare ourselves to and feel good about our moral superiority--no matter how low the standard.

"The Known World" takes us into a complex narrative that wrestles with the moral complexities and chilling realities of slavery in the United States, specifically zooming into the lives of both black and white residents in antebellum Virginia. Awarding it a solid 4-star rating acknowledges the novel's potent storytelling and rich historical detail while also giving a nod to the points where it may fall slightly short for some readers.

The novel ventures into a frequently unexplored domain within historical narratives about American slavery: black slave owners. Jones crafts a tapestry that is both vast and intimate, exploring the life of Henry Townsend, a black farmer and former slave who becomes a slaveholder himself. The story presents readers with a multitude of perspectives and experiences related to this morally fraught system.

Jones's prose is dense and intricate, with each page demanding thoughtful consideration. The way he interweaves various timelines and characters' lives is impressive, providing a wide-ranging yet deeply personal exploration of how the institution of slavery permeates and corrodes the world it inhabits. His exploration of power, humanity, and morality within the grotesque framework of slavery provides a contemplative reading experience that lingers long after the final page is turned.

Despite the powerful narrative and compelling characters, "The Known World" sometimes risks becoming mired in its own complexity. The narrative is non-linear, frequently shifting between characters and time periods, which, while providing a comprehensive view of the world Jones has created, can occasionally disrupt the flow of the story and disengage the reader. The multitude of characters, each with their own story and struggles, might be seen as both a strength and a weakness, as some narratives might feel cut short or underexplored.

The novel's sprawling timeline and array of characters present a full-bodied view of the period, yet at times, this expansiveness might be seen to dilute the emotional impact of individual storylines. While we are given brief glimpses into numerous lives, the depth of emotional engagement with each character can vary, potentially leaving readers yearning for more from certain stories.

In concluding, Edward P. Jones’s "The Known World" is an indisputably potent piece of literature. Its exploration of morality, power, and humanity within a context that is often unexplored is both thought-provoking and heartbreaking. Despite its narrative complexity potentially being a stumbling block for some readers, the novel’s thematic depth and rich historical detail affirm its place as a vital read for those exploring the dark corners of American history. Thus, a commendable 4-star rating feels apt, appreciating its brilliant aspects while acknowledging the elements that might not cater to every reader’s preferences.

2.5-stars, really.

here is a perfect example of a books 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 are because of the style/structure of the novel:

* the third-person, omniscient narrator - this was distracting from very early on in the read. i held off judging it. i wanted to trust jones and his choice.
* non-linear narrative - i don't tend to have problems with this at all, but i found it super-clunky here. also distracting.
* the made-up references - jones would cite sources and details that seemed to lend such an air of gravitas, but none of it is actually real. (i know, i know. this is fiction. a novel. get over it. but it was just kinda weird to me. social commentary inserted into fiction happens. steinbeck did it. teju cole does it. many writers do this. i felt like jones did a crap-ton of research for this book. but then i read this NPR piece. in it, he notes he collected 2 shelves worth of books on slavery... "but never got around to reading them". so this just added to my 'what the?' on the references in the novel and jones' research.)
* all of this combined for a really awkward flow, and convoluted storytelling. i felt like it could lose 50-100 pages and be a tighter, better story.

in case you think maybe i am a lazy reader - i'm not, i swear! i love nothing more than a meaty, tough read. jones' story is definitely both of these things. he explores the issue of free black people owning slaves in virginia, and he gives us a large cast of active characters. but it all felt so... surface-y. we get the actions and reactions, but we don't really get the motivations or emotions. jones is navigating a morally dodgy landscape, one i would have loved to have gone into more deeply. we are given the horrors and the heartbreaks, but it all felt so detached. and, you know, maybe that is totally on purpose. maybe, for some people, detachment is the only way through such a horrible time in history.

jones has collected some serious critical acclaim and recognition over his career. to name a few: he's won the pulitzer, the national book critic's circle award, the PEN/Hemingway award, a MacArthur genius grant, and the International IMPAC dublin literary award. he's won nearly $1 million in literary awards alone. the man 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 the light on the issues jones raises enough? so now i am back to the should. i should love this book. (it was just okay for me.) people should read this book. (indeed. but this is not a book i will blanket recommend to all.)

so, i don't know you guys. i am bummed over this one. and this is a terrible review/collection of thoughts. maybe i'll become more coherent with some distance and fix this up a bit - but for now i wanted to note down something here.

(aside #1 (going to be a bit spoiler-y here): moses confused me. or, rather, his turn to all-of-a-sudden being an asshole was weird. we're going along with moses. he seems like a lovely man. then, halfway into the book, he's a wife-beater, jerkface? where did that come from, and why was he presented like that? the reveal of moses being a not nice man was sudden and odd.)

(aside #2: worth noting (was hugely interesting to me) - the cover photo of this edition is © Eudora Welty! i had no idea about her photographic prowess.)