The Known World (Today Show Book Club # 17)

Rating:
Summary: A Stunniing Novel about a little-studied aspect of history
Review: There have been many books written about the slave experience but, to my knowledge, none that explores with such sensitivity the relationship between African American slave-holders and their African American slaves. The book traces the stories of a family of slave owners, their neighbors and friends, and the slaves whose lives are in their hands. In addition, this incredibly well-researched novel presents a vivid picture of the casual and brutal violence that was part of a society where the majority of its members were legally considered Property.

This is not an easy book to read, because there are parts of our history that it is more comfortable to gloss over, or to forget. "The Known World" contributes to the essential task of remembering, and honoring the courageous men and women whose emancipation was written with fear and blood and pain.

Rating:
Summary: THE YEAR'S BEST....KNOWN WORLD
Review: AS THE NEW YEAR IS UPON US, I OFFICIALLY OFFER YOU MY LIST OF THE 10 BEST BOOKS THAT I'VE READ IN 2004. THIS IS OUT OF ABOUT 84 BOOKS THAT I'VE READ THIS YEAR. EVERY SINGLE BOOK ON THIS LIST IS A MASTERPIECE WORTH BUYING. YOU WON'T BE DISAPPOINTED WITH GREAT LITERATURE LIKE THE FOLLOWING:

"THE DARKEST CHILD"--Delores Phillips

The finest, most dramatic debut I've read in years. Top notch and gut-wrenching. This is by far the best book of 2004.

"BRICK LANE"--Monica Ali

Superb entry into a world foreign yet all too familiar. Flawless, beautiful writing.

"HOTTENTOT VENUS"--Barbara Chase Riboud

A True Story. Which makes this book all the more shocking and tragic. By now you've heard of the kidnapped and dehumanized South African woman paraded in the 1800's Europe as a "freak" because of her huge posterior and the apron over her genitals. Chase Riboud chronicles the tale perfectly and makes it far more interesting than just history. The fact that "Sarah" was like a Pop Superstar of her day makes it all the more chilling in my opinion. A definite Must-Read.

"FLESH AND THE DEVIL"--Kola Boof

Totally original, unexpected black love story. Chock full of African history, U.S. black history, fantastic plot twists, pulsating sex, equally dazzling "lovemaking", brilliant observations about race, color and sexism and plenty of risk-taking by the sensational Sudanese-born Kola Boof, truly a NEW STAR in the "epic" sense. Fabulous!

"DOUGLASS' WOMEN"--Jewel Parker Rhodes

If ever a fictionalized story of a real person's life/real events makes you totally believe inch and detail of the fiction writer's imagination--this one is it!! Jewel Parker Rhodes is turning out to be one of our most ardent writers of historical fiction, her brevity and flair for honest human emotion making her just a little BETTER, in my opinion, than the queen of historical black fiction--Barbara Chase Riboud. You can't go wrong with "DOUGLASS' WOMEN", it's sensational.

"ERASURE"---Percival Everett

I know. I'm late reading this one. But it's classic, fantastic, the greatest book ever written about being a "black" writer today. SUPERB. 10 Stars.

"A DISTANT SHORE"--Caryl Phillips

Great novel about "human beings" ripped apart in their own world and then thrown together in new equally dreadful surroundings. A black man and a white woman are juxtaposed in England with terribly beautiful insight by the writer. It's a hard book to explain, except that it's about human beings finding their real true minds. Superb!!!! I give this one 10 stars.

"DRINKING COFFEE ELSEWHERE"--Z.Z. Packer

The breakout debut of the new Alice Walker and Toni Morrison rolled into one. Z.Z. Packer is outrageously talented and brilliant. These sparse, witty, intelligent, insightful short stories will bring you to tears, make you laugh and truly astonish you.

"THE KNOWN WORLD"--Edward P. Jones

This book starts off kind of "slow", but once you get into it, it's quite shocking, easily one of the most important stories told in a decade. Jones deserves all the accolades and awards he's received for this masterful masterpiece of the new century.

"LOVE"--Toni Morrison

Still the undisputable greatest writer writing. Toni Morrison offers up one of her very best novels, the most underrated and overlooked novel of the year. Absolutely meszmerizing, a bute.


Rating:
Summary: So understated and so powerful
Review: The Known World has received so much aclaim, and rightly so. It is an amazing piece of writing that manages to capture the tragedy and moral complexity of slavery and the attitudes prevalent in the south during that time. Before I had read the book, based on the reviews, I expected a difficult, emotional read. What I found however, was Jones' matter of fact style is so understated that it is easy to skim over some of the most gut-wrenching elements of the story. And that is the book's power. It may not make sense reading this review, but the way that Jones enables the reader to just pass over things actually drives the point home even further than had he been more explicit in his attempt to draw an emotional response. It also enables him to convey the contradictions that were prevalent in the thinking of the time. This is a powerful book and a must read for every American who wants to understand our full history.

Rating:
Summary: Tedious Beyond Endurance
Review: I finished Chapter 1 and found that I had "met" dozens of characters and hop-scotched among several decades of parents and progeny. I should have made notes. No, I shouldn't have. That's not how I want to read fiction, no way, no how.

A lot of "reviewers" like the book. I did not and didn't start Chapter 2. The local library can have my copy.


Rating:
Summary: A Worthy Effort
Review:
Set in the 1830's The Known World is a story of Henry and Caldonia Townsend, two educated black slave owners in Manchester County, Virginia. This is no doubt an important novel because it deals with one of the unique complexities of slavery - black slave ownership. As he tells of the Townsend saga from slavery to freedom to prosperity to decline author Edward P. Jones paints a vivid landscape of time and characters.

I enjoyed The Known World though I had to work very hard to get there. I had difficulty getting into sync with Jones' narrative style. Perhaps it was the number of characters he kept introducing or perhaps it was his constant shifting of time that kept me off balance. But I was never able to get into a flow where the pages just swept me along. However, in the end the novel did succeed in touching a range of human emotions and capturing the feel of that turbulent period of American history. And that made the effort worthwhile.


Rating:
Summary: How to leave the known world behind
Review: This novel has such a masterful way of piling up details to create a world so real it has a smell and taste as you walk through it, like the massive maps created by crazy Alice at the end of the story. When we read about "slavery" in history books it seems so simple and wrong, so easy to navigate and judge in terms of monsters and victims; but in this telling, selling and putting to work fellow people is part of a morally hazy and rationalized complex of human relations, a system that is all-enveloping. Characters are troubled by feelings that this way of life is somehow unacceptable and yet inescapable; everyone seems trapped by an inability to imagine and create an alternative to "The Known World," and there is no way for a single individual to opt out of the system. Where Jones is absolutely amazing is his ability to sketch in a fully-developed personality with a few details; further, all of the characters recognize each other's intellegence and humanity even as they sell each other as property.

The Known World also connects us back to a rural, small world most of us have never really had contact with ---- whether its the man who can taste the weather and what the crops will need in a pinch of field soil, or the length of time and difficulty it takes to travel ten miles on a mule-drawn wagon; most of the characters have not been outside of three Virginia counties where the story takes place. Travel from one estate to another takes most of the day and thus visiting is not somthing to be taken lightly or passed over quickly. I suggest you keep this in mind when meandering through this brilliant, dense book.

Rating:
Summary: Stick with it and you'll find your reward!
Review: The Known World by Edward P Jones was a wonderful read! Lengthy, I don't think it's possible to write a brief overview of the book but I'll try. Basically, it is the story of slave era Manchester County, Virginia where there are - wow - black slave owners. Also amongst the brilliance of this story are a God-fearing sheriff, an indian overseer, free colored people, a fair-skinned colored teacher, the mixed race children of a fierce slave owner who are dear to his heart, and an array of other characters. Though I would have to say that there are many many characters, it wasn't confusing to me (a person who eats detail up). I think most people are put off because Jones gives each character a name regardless of their importance to the story. Some are only mentioned briefly, but they are still identified by name. I think this story is a winner! It deserves every nomination and award it has received. I couldn't put it down I was so engulfed in the story. It's worth adding to your personal library. It was definitely refreshing and now that I'm finished with it I'll be hard pressed to find another novel that can meet or beat it's standard. Way to go Edward Jones - keep it up (I'll be keeping an eye peeled for his next novel)!

Rating:
Summary: An epic novel about Slavery and moral confusion
Review: Edward P. Jones' "The Known World (KW)", the 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner, is an epic novel about slavery in the years immediately preceding the American Civil War. Unlike other epic novels set in the same era like "Cold Mountain", KW doesn't have a real protagonist because Jones' interest extends beyond telling a story about individual lives. His subject is Slavery and in choosing to examine a curious and little known phenomenon of free blacks owning un-free blacks, he sets up the perfect vehicle for exploring the corrupting influence of this pernicious social paradigm on the morals of otherwise decent human beings.

Henry Townsend, the novel's nominal hero whose early and untimely death is anticipated in its first pages, thinks he can be a more humane slave owner once he buys his own freedom and becomes a slave owner himself. He doesn't live long enough to see his "property" fall apart and dissipate under the hapless management of his widow Caldonia. Using the detached voice of an omniscient narrator, Jones weaves together an intricate tapestry of interconnected anecdotes involving a huge cast of characters - too many to keep track of - to reveal the horrors of slavery and the moral confusion it brings to its subjects. His characters, black and white, struggle unsuccessfully to give expression to their humanity because the legal dictates of slavery and the code of behaviour it enforces on its subjects are unnatural and run counter to their instincts. This sense of moral confusion is clearly evident in the choices facing Fern Elston and the Sheriff, but most poignantly conveyed in the tentative coupling of Caldonia and her overseer Moses, whose affair is doomed not to survive their legal relationship of owner and owned when the chips are down.

Jones' narrative voice is calm and controlled throughout, accentuating by way of ironical inference the abnormality of human relationships under slavery . His anecdotes are moving and heartfelt though not always memorable - there are a couple we could do without, like the one detailing Counsel's long sojourn across the country, - though his tendency for under-dramatisation only serves to heighten the impact of those that resonate. There is none more tender than the story of Elias and Celeste, nor one more heartbreaking than that of August who bought his freedom only to be sold back to slavery when his papers disappear down the throat of a white rogue patroller. The novel ends on an uplifting note offering hope and a future to the lucky few who escaped the system.

"The Known World" is classic American literature, a novel that will be read by many for years to come.