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From Publishers Weekly
In a crabbed, powerful follow-up to his National Book Award-nominated short story collection (Lost in the City), Jones explores an oft-neglected chapter of American history, the world of blacks who owned blacks in the antebellum South. His fictional examination of this unusual phenomenon starts with the dying 31-year-old Henry Townsend, a former slave-now master of 33 slaves of his own and more than 50 acres of land in Manchester County, Va.-worried about the fate of his holdings upon his early death. As a slave in his youth, Henry makes himself indispensable to his master, William Robbins. Even after Henry's parents purchase the family's freedom, Henry retains his allegiance to Robbins, who patronizes him when he sets up shop as a shoemaker and helps him buy his first slaves and his plantation. Jones's thorough knowledge of the legal and social intricacies of slaveholding allows him to paint a complex, often startling picture of life in the region. His richest characterizations-of Robbins and Henry-are particularly revealing. Though he is a cruel master to his slaves, Robbins is desperately in love with a black woman and feels as much fondness for Henry as for his own children; Henry, meanwhile, reads Milton, but beats his slaves as readily as Robbins does. Henry's wife, Caldonia, is not as disciplined as her husband, and when he dies, his worst fears are realized: the plantation falls into chaos. Jones's prose can be rather static and his phrasings ponderous, but his narrative achieves crushing momentum through sheer accumulation of detail, unusual historical insight and generous character writing.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
From Booklist
Henry Townsend, born a slave, is purchased and freed by his father, yet he remains attached to his former owner, even taking lessons in slave owning when he eventually buys his own slaves. Townsend is part of a small enclave of free blacks who own slaves, thus offering another angle on the complexities of slavery and social relations in a Virginia town just before the Civil War. His widow, Caldonia, grief-stricken and more conflicted about slavery than Henry was, fails to maintain the social order. Also caught in the miasma of slavery is Sheriff John Skiffington, an honorable man who, when presented with a slave as a marriage gift, spends the remainder of his marriage, along with his wife, dithering about how to deal with the girl and ends up treating her like a daughter. These are only a few of the deftly portrayed characters in this elegantly written novel that explores the interweaving of sex, race, and class. Jones moves back and forth in time, making the reader omniscient, knowing what will eventually befall the characters despite their best and worst efforts, their aspirations and their moral failings. This is a profoundly beautiful and insightful look at American slavery and human nature. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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The evening his master died he worked again well after he ended the day for the other adults, his own wife among them, and sent them back with hunger and tiredness to their cabins. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt | Back Cover
The evening his master died he worked again well after he ended the day for the other adults, his own wife among them, and sent them back with hunger and tiredness to their cabins. Read the first page
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
I know this much is true,
By Sharon Blech (Alberta) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Known World: A Novel (Paperback)
THE KNOWN WORLD tells the story of a little known practice in history-the owning of slaves by black masters. The author weaves together the lives of several families both black and white: he does so with a hypnotic narrative that is at times reminiscent of Faulkner. The reader will deeply care about these wonderful folks and will be left with a sense of longing when the book is finished. I bought this after reading another Oprah selection: NIGHT which was simply fantastic. But THE KNOWN world is obviously set in a different time and with a totally different theme(s), more along the lines of McCrae’s TOUR OF SOUTHERN HOMES AND GARDENS or even possibly some of the works of Berendt. Jones has the power of Faulkner and the edge of Morrison. He's perhaps more readable than either of those, being tempered with a bit of Baldwin's sensitivity to characters. Very good thing. This novel involves you in the lives of an intricate web of characters. Their lives play out over years, over lifetimes, really. The narrator is quite happy to reach forward and back in time at will, giving you information that only a god-like figure could know. I'd be worried about that in the hands of most writers. None of us are gods. But Edward P Jones does an amazing job of providing a full tableau of life in the fictional county he so vividly creates. You believe him completely, and it's easy to trust that he renders both the white and the black characters with a fine-tuned understanding of human strengths and weaknesses. If you’re interested in this type of great writing, themes, and such, I must recommend Baldwin’s GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and/or the shocking BARK OF THE DOGWOOD, which is set across the centuries and a true look at race and the South not only yesterday, but today. THE KNOWN WORLD is simply fantastic—in too many ways to mention.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Elite,
This review is from: The Known World: A Novel (Paperback)
"The Known World" is a remarkable novel. I place it in the league of "The Color Purple", "My Fractured Life", and "The Kite Runner." The writing is crystal clear with swelling and spilling emotional conflict: black versus white, black versus black, man versus woman. Few writers can capture the blurred imaginary lines that cultures errect with such accuracy. "The Known World" is a an elite, must read. I also recommend "The Kite Runner", "My Fractured Life", "The Known World" and "1776."
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Know thyself,
This review is from: The Known World: A Novel (Paperback)
Likened to Jackson McCrae's BARK OF THE DOGWOOD with its themes of race, THE KNOWN WORLD did not initially pique my interest. Fortunately, both books deal with the subject in a new and exciting manner. Read on: Slavery is one of those topics that present day Mississippians may shy away from as a matter of principle. There is the ever-present refrain to "get beyond" race and tout the positive aspects of the New South, the mantra that is often used by both black and white Southerners. I'm not one who believes it, but I did have the crusty misconception when I began THE KNOWN WORLD that there wasn't much more I could learn on the subject of slavery and its effects, both then and now. However, Eudora Welty's photograph on the book's cover helped peak my interest and after the first chapter I didn't need any more encouragement to continue. THE KNOWN WORLD is an entirely surprising testament to why no one, black or white, should refuse to constantly revisit the roots of the here and now.
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