Lovely

18% Done: The way EPJ structured the story was, lovely...the care he took with the characters, the build up, was so unique and unlike anything I have ever read(or remember reading). Lovely.

I've never heard of this book, of Edward P. Jones, or of Manchester Country. The latter makes sense because Manchester Country, Virginia is a purely fictional place, the other two, in contrast, are very real and it's a shame I'm learning about them so late.

At first, I thought this book will be a huge challenge to go through, I found Jones' writing terse and dry. But a few chapters in, it really grew on me. Jones has a very unique style, one which immediately projects clarity and intimacy, and a cold, calm evaluation of the effect of time. You feel like you're reading a 400 page epitaph, carved in marble by the most loving hand. I got this edition at my local used bookstore. I was looking for something to get me through the week and a cranky old guy who was working at the store that day told me that somebody just left a Pulitzer Prize winner on his counter and he'll give it to me at a bargain price. I skimmed through the first chapter, read the synopsis on the back and was very intrigued by the premise. A slave that becomes a slave owner, now that is captivating. And it didn't disappoint. The Known World is a stupendous book. It's not a trivial story of slavery with clear demarcation between the good and the bad, instead Jones gives us a perturbing layer cake of all the shades of evil, and all the shades of compassion, which feels somehow more real for all this nuance. I'm not an American and I don't share America's obsession with race. In all honesty, I find it rather vexing and pathetic. For me, as an outsider, "getting ahead" is the essential aspiration of being an American, that is, they aspire to succeed, even if there are casualties, and their ambitions, more often than not, can be color blind. I felt like Jones shared my sentiment. I loved the complexity involved from a moral standpoint. You have black slave owners to white abolitionists whose welfare is dependent on slavery. Jones doesn't take the easy way out and there are no easy answers. Characters behave admirably in some situations, abhorrently in others, but always with purpose. In other words, this novel is not a "one trick pony." There's tremendous richness of character all around.

The author of The Known World has created a world of people — slaves, whites and slave-owning free African Americans — in a fictional county in Virginia, in a time which takes place mostly before the Civil War. I say mostly then, because the stories of these people jump around in time. There are some linear elements to the stories, but the author sees the entire span of life of each character as the tales are told. In the creation of this world, the author has done an amazing thing because the reader feels like a true and authentic history is being told. The creation of this specific county in this specific time reminded me of Faulkner’s works.

There is some really good writing here and it confronts the reader with the thorny issues of the times and the circumstances of these lives. One example — if the Civil War or a slave uprising were to happen, the black slave owner says, “The only question for us, around this blessed table, is which side should we choose. I suppose that is what the pamphlets want me to do. Choose my side.”

In a similar way, when a white man is trying to tell the truth about a situation involving a free black man who was wronged by some whites, he is afraid people will think he is betraying his tribe of white people. He says, “A body should be able to stand under some…some kinda light and declare what he knows without retribution. There should be some kinda lantern, John, that we can stand under and say, ‘I know what I know and what I know is God’s truth,’ and then come from under the light and nobody make any big commotion bout what he said.” There is more to that speech, and when I was finished reading it, I was reminded of the speech that Tom Joad gives when leaving his mother at the end of The Grapes of Wrath.

I guess to be compared with Faulkner and Steinbeck is pretty high praise.

My reluctance to give this book a higher rating is sourced primarily in that I didn’t really feel all that connected to anyone in the novel, almost as though I was observing them from a great distance. But it was quite a fascinating view.

La letra es demasiado pequeña y, aunque tengas buena vista, cansa y no puedes hacer largas tiradas de lectura. No lo recomiendo. La lástima es que es demasiado tarde para devolverlo, si no lo haría seguro. No se puede leer de forma placentera con una letra tan pequena y condensada. El libro es largo para adoptar una letra así. No lo recomiendo en absoluto. Gasta unos euros más y disfruta del libro con una letra más grande y  adiente para la lectura de placer.

You have to read this novel! The characters, style of writing, and historical accuracy make it difficult to put this book down.

I really liked this slow book about the life of a community in Virgina before the Civil War. I didn't know black people could own slaves back then. The story is tragically beautiful;it takes place on a plantation where the black owner dies. From then on, everything starts to go wrong on the plantation, and slaves keep disappearing..
The writing is astonishing : present and past are subtly intertwined to carry the plot until an inevitable conclusion. The characters are truly remarkable, and true to life.

*****
The Known World was unique among fiction books I have read in the last twenty years or so.  It was a thoroughly enjoyable read.  I would not call it an easy read, because it was some work to keep track of all of the different characters, but nevertheless, so very well worth it.  Despite the work, it was entertaining.  Like other reviewers, it kept me up at night, and kept me reading.
The book caused me to wonder how I would behave had I the same cultural background as the various characters in the book---the white slave owners, black slave owners, the black slaves.  I had always thought before that I "of course" would be against slavery, would fight for rights for all races, and absolutely never do anything so repulsive as to own slaves.  I wondered how anyone ever could!  The Known World opened my eyes to how this could happen, and how easily one of those slaveowners---black or white---could have been me.  Or how easily I could have been a slave.  It also provided insight into the psychological world of the slave.  All of this was done by showing, not telling, so the reading was more of a powerful emotional experience rather than an intellectual experience.
What made this so different for me is that I picked this book soley upon the Amazon reviews and rankings.  I had no inherent interest in American history or race relations or the Civil War era, but this book GOT me interested.  I think that the only person who would not enjoy this book would be the person who is not open or interested in challenging themselves, not interested in thinking, or afraid to find out about or explore the dark side of the human experience.
Because of the complexity of the book, as far as the feelings of the characters, the layers of meaning, and the strong impact, I know that I will read this book again and again, and am therefore glad that I spent the money to get it in hardback.  It is well worth the money, and is a beautiful "rough cut" book.  I have thought about its message again and again since reading it; I would call it haunting, thought-provoking, disturbing, and honest.

good

I've been reading through the 'Best Books of the Century' and puzzled at a couple of them. But Edward P Jones is an astonishing storyteller who captured me from the outset of this epic tale.  His style means you can almost hear him narrate, even down to his 'interrupted' timeline when he suddenly remembers something to tell us (I loved when I am reading something he has told the reader before).
The Known World describes a place and the characters that exist within it; one that will stay with me for a long time - I feel like I've almost been there!  Brilliant book.

"The Known World" is the author's first novel eleven years after publishing an anthology of short stories, "Lost in the City." The names, locations, and characters are all fictional and created in his mind during eleven years of planning. The depth of detail of the plantation in Manchester County has been compared with Faulkner's Yoknapatawpha County. The Mirage Book Club members' take on the book was mixed and atypical. One member liked the first chapter but not the rest of the book; the second member was impressed with the images and descriptions of the scenes but not the meandering of the narration; some said the book was well written and explored an unknown view of slavery; a few were very impressed with the book: "Jones did a very good job discussing and disclosing slavery, and the title of the book was very fitting," said one member. "And the non-linear story telling and consistent narration was constructed masterfully." another member said, "There are two major considerations here: 1. the system [slavery] is unchangeable and slaves have no choice but to comply, and 2. unlike Faulkner's South who represents only whites, Jones writes about blacks too, as did Ernest Gray and a few other African-American writers."

"The book was tedious to read yet some characters were interesting; Alice was stunning," said a member. "I didn't believe the story." next person read the whole book and found it informative, "A pleasant way to write about slavery." Another member was not convinced, "Winning the Pulitzer Prize could be a political matter." But another person found the book very interesting and enjoyable to read. "I liked Fern Alston, a noble person in a deeply corrupted political society." A member who likes every book she reads said, "I learn something from the book we read, though this one was a very different read, I liked the characters especially Augustus and Alice [she was crazy but she was fun]; but another member found the characters unreal and the descriptions tedious. "The prose was well constructed but the dialogues were excessive and inconsequential." A doctor/member listened to the audio version. "The author is telling a very believable story," said he, "An untold version of slavery."  The moderator's husband talked about the voice, the writing style, and the dialogues. "This book compares well to the notable novels about slavery," said he, "The author is African-American and when he was working on his M.F.A. in creative writing in Boston he read an article about a few black citizens of the South who were slave-owners. Then he collected shelves of books about slavery, the stories about the slaves who were ill, pregnant, and crippled or hobbled but still forcefully worked six days a week from sunrise to sunset," said he. "The author also collected stories from the earliest published black writers many of whom were slaves and abolitionists. The voice is constant and the narrator is omniscient, he is everywhere, sees everything, and knows what's going on in every cabin.