Rating: 
Summary: It's in the details
Review: Jones' latest work is a myriad of characters, events, and places. While his main focus is on a few central characters, numerous secondary character come into play as he relates their life experiences in an eccentric, yet effective manner. THE KNOWN WORLD is a vastly detailed account of the black slaveowner Henry Townsend and the saga that both follows and precedes his death. Henry, a former slave on the large Robbins plantation, came into his own after being bought out of servitude. He forged a strong foundation for his own family and future, but remained loyal to William Robbins, his former master. He bought his first slave in his early twenties, and by the time of his death at 31 years old, he owned 33 slaves and a successful plantation that was fashioned upon both the slaves' love for their master and Henry's unbending will to please Robbins. Henry's illness and succeeding death were the impetus for chaos on the Townsend plantation as everyone knew it. Moses, the overseer got mean and despondent, other slaves escaped under the cover of darkness, and a general feeling of foreboding hovered over both the slave cabins and the main house.Jones did a fantastic job of relating the story of an elite class of free black slaveholders in Virginia that many accounts of the antebellum South have failed to acknowledge. With his collection of short stories, Lost in the City, Jones used the Washington, DC setting as the backbone. In this novel, it is in the details that he writes of each character that we come in contact with that he builds upon. The writing is reminiscent of jazz, with its riffs thrown in for both showmanship and for expression. I was never left hanging, wondering what may have become of this character or that, as his or her life was related in the details of the plot, and even at times in their introduction into the story. This is a book to read when you are searching for valuable lessons in history and the bonds that it both severs and forms. Reviewed by CandaceK
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers
Rating: 
Summary: A Great Story!
Review: Edward P. Jones's The Known World is a complex, multidimensional story of the interrelationships among slaves, Indians, black and white masters, patrollers, husbands and wives in an antebellum setting in fictional Manchester County, Virginia. The catalyst of the story is the death of Henry Townsend, a former slave who is mentored by his former owner, William Robbins, the most powerful man in the county. William Robbins has a white wife and children as well as a black mistress and children with her. It is no secret to anyone in the county that he spends time with both but prefers the black family, even to the point of educating his black children and his favorite slave, Henry. Henry's father saves money for nearly fifteen years to purchase his own freedom, his wife's and eventually his son's. However, as the years pass, Robbins's influence over Henry is gripping. After his father's purchase of him, Henry reluctantly leaves Robbin's plantation to live with his parents, but returns to the plantation to visit often. He grows up into a headstrong young man only to purchase land near his former owner. Under Robbin's tutelage, Henry purchases slaves for his farm against the wishes of his outraged parents who detest human bondage regardless of the master's race. When Henry dies young, his widow, Caldonia, succumbs to grief, and the "known world" of Manchester County begins to unravel. Henry's most "loyal" slaves run toward freedom and the black Caldonia must resort to hiring white and Indian patrollers to reclaim her property. The complexities are heightened by the affair that ensues between Caldonia and her black overseer, the illegal capture and sale of Henry's father back into slavery by roving "speculators," and the final outcome of all the key characters and Manchester County itself. The author's storytelling style is interesting as he often reveals the entire history of a character including the trials, tribulations, and sometimes his/her untimely demise before the character acts in the present. Thus the reader can quickly surmise that particular character's insecurities, motivation, and vulnerabilities. The book is filled with numerous characters, many more than are mentioned in this review; all are similarly interesting and engaging as the aforementioned. For example, Jones also provides an excellent depiction of the interconnections and mindset of the slaves on Henry's plantation which are equally complex and intriguing as the other white character's relationships. The Known World is a worthwhile read of a world created by the institution of slavery. Reviewed by Phyllis
APOOO BookClub, Nubian Circle Book Club
August 29, 2003
Rating:
Summary: Like listening to jazz
Review: I waded into The Known World not knowing what to expect. I was unfamiliar with Mr. Jones or any of his previous work, more attracted to the book by Eudora Welty's photograph on the cover than anything else. At first I was overwhelmed by the steady ping ping pinging of detail and rapid introduction of one character after another, then surprised to realize the vibrant visual power of Mr. Jones' very unique writing style. Like jazz, The Known World carries you along in strange and unexpected ways.
Rating: 
Summary: A complex book, glorious premise, thick prose
Review: Edward P. Jones was the first in his family to ever go to college -- an achievement that changed his life in a way he didn't expect. While studying at Holy Cross, Jones stumbled upon a startling fact: Not all slave-owners in the South had been white. Some were black. Raised proud in a familiar black tradition, it stung him. It also haunted him for 20 years, until he could use that single fact as the fascinating premise of his first novel, "The Known World." "The Known World" orbits around Henry Townsend, a black farmer born into slavery. Lest the gentle reader dismiss the premise as the product of a fevered imagination, black slave-owners really existed in pre-Civil War America. Free blacks in Virginia and a few other Southern states -- not many, mind you -- owned their own plantations and the slaves that made them profitable. Jones refers several times to a fictional, 19th century academic pamphlet on the subject of black slave-owners, but the pamphlet never really existed -- further muddling the sometimes ambiguous world Jones explores. The only thing black and white about this remote corner of a newly imagined Virginia -- Jones's home state -- is the reader's anachronistic conviction that slavery was an abomination; most of the black characters in this novel are grayer in their beliefs. Jones's sometimes overly florid narrative dips in and out of time, disrupting rhythms and preconceptions, and provides the most charming technical and structural element of the story. One moment, the reader is mired in the absurdities and vicissitudes of the antebellum flesh trade, and the next he is telescoped to modern-day Richmond where the great-grandchild of a slave -- now a city councilwoman -- is naming the street for ancient forebears. And while Jones's occasionally baroque prose makes crossing into "The Known World" slow-going, it is exactly its Biblical rhythms that lend depth to a story about profound moral confusion. The first hundred pages are more confusing than a thousand rhapsodic "begats" and can be sluggish, but the story meanders to a gentle, satisfying end.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing and wonderful
Review: A brilliant novel in every way. Read it and weep...after you finish it, you won't want to read anything else for a while, just sit and think about what you have read. Tackles the most difficult subject for American letters -- slavery -- from an oblique angle, which makes it all the more compelling. Deserves the Nobel Prize for literature. We have had to wait 11 years since Mr. Jones' short story collection for this wonderful book; I can only hope the next one won't be so long in coming.
Rating:
Summary: A mini-epic with authentic voice and flavor
Review: While I won't go so far as to say that this was the best book of the year, as pretty much every book reviewer and prize committee seems to have done, I will say that this is an important work of literature and one that is worthy of reading and re-reading. My only criticism is that it introduces just a few too many characters early in the novel, and this flaw creates confusion during the first half of the book. I found myself at times trying to remember who was who, and how they were all related. But other than that, this is a great book. Many reviewers have compared it to Toni Morrison, for obvious reasons. I actually found that the prose and story were more reminiscent of Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry. Like Lonesome Dove, this book maintained throughout a sense of an epic journey, and of a world and lives that had existed long before the story began and would continue to exist long after. The prose is simple and honest, with a sound of period authenticity. As for the characters, many are memorable, but none stood out as a true hero or anti-hero of the novel. If this were a movie, it would be a true ensemble cast with no clear starring role. I think that is what gives the book such a genuine feel. It is not just a story of one man or woman, with lots of other characters circling around the spotlight. Rather, it is a portrait of life in the South prior to the Civil War. The book is not about the characters, per se, but rather about the world in which they live. Jones has done a wonderful job of portraying this world in a way that doesn't seem to glorify or condemn any of it. It would have been easy to fall into that trap of making some sort of political statement with this novel, but Jones cautiously leaves that for the reader to decide. What Jones does, instead, is bring to light a fascinating period of American history, and by focusing on a black slave-owner, he has created an awareness that I think was lacking in American literature.
Rating: 
Summary: Hated It
Review: Not only is the subject matter "just what children of slave masters" ordered, it is profoundly slow and boring. I love the jacket cover, that was the reason I gave it 1 star but that alone did not prevent me from taking it back to the store for a full refund! Condi Rice and Clarence Thomas will probably write the paperback version's introduction.
Rating:
Summary: An informative read
Review: "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:
Summary: Utterly unconventional
Review: Edward P. Jones' The Known World does not take the tradtional approach to novel writing. Rather than giving us an intimate look into the life of one character or one family, Jones takes us across an entire county in antebellum Virginia. Despite the intimidating number of characters, each one comes alive, and each receives adequate attention. Although at the beginning of the novel, the complexities of Jones' story may make reading slow going, by the end, you appreciate just how important every word of the story was. Additionally, Jones' deals with the taboo subject of black ownership of slaves. He does not evade the issue or excuse it, rather, he uses a straight-on approach that leaves the reader to tackle issues of morality all on their own. Jones tells you a story, not how to feel about it, and in the end, that makes the reader's emotions just that much more intense. An amazing book!
Rating:
Summary: (4.5) A landscape of moral ambiguity
Review:
This exceptional novel maps the deep roots of slavery, even as freedom skirts the edges of the institution, affecting generation who must navigate the ante-bellum south. As the storyline moves back and forth in time, it is sometimes disconcerting to know a character's fate, while he is still living, but such is the genius of the author- the broad perspective that gives the novel its authenticity.
Henry Townsend is a black Virginia slaveholder who experienced his own years of servitude, until his parents were able to purchase his freedom. With all that Henry's parents taught him, they never thought to articulate their own beliefs, assuming their son understood that owning slaves was wrong, in fact, intolerable. Yet Henry's attachment to his white owner has prompted continued contact and advice on handling slaves. A convenient blankness settles over Townsend's conscience and he becomes one of the few black slaveholders in Virginia.
After Henry's death, his wife, Caldonia, is left to sort her husband's affairs. There is a rigid code of behavior for slaveholders, but Caldonia blurs the lines, crossing boundaries and complicating the lives of those in her care. The social structure of the enterprise unravels, leaving both former slaves and owner adrift in moral ambiguity. The author's idiosyncratic prose illustrates the difficulties the characters face in navigating the moral conundrum of their emerging world.
At the core of this omniscient novel is the simple humanity of those seeking a way through the turmoil of social change and constant upheaval. The rigid boundaries of race are challenged by the realities of daily living conditions; long-held beliefs are rendered insignificant in the face of survival.
Jones's social masterpiece documents the changing face of a South perplexed by its own future, fighting to retain the old, while submitting to the inevitable. The characters are fully-fleshed, driven into the future by hope that often turns to despair. This remarkable novel speaks to the endurance and survival of those who are driven by courage and necessity. Luan Gaines/2005.
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