This review is going to have a lot in common with the one I just wrote for The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao. Like Junot Diaz’s novel, this book has won a Pulitzer. Also like Oscar, it is extremely complex. And what makes it the most similar to the book I reviewed last is that I didn’t think it was amazing. It’s like I have a thing against Pulitzer Prize-winners or something. I actually think I have really high standards as to what caliber of book should win it. The Known World by Edward P. Jones is highly interesting for a lot of reasons, so I should stop making generalized statements and get to the specifics.
The premise of this book is a really interesting one. It takes place in antebellum Virginia, in the fictional county of Manchester. It concerns itself with neighboring plantations within the county, one of which is the Townsend place. Henry and Caldonia Townsend are free African Americans who own slaves. Yes, you read that right. It wasn’t common, but it did happen every now and then in America before the Civil War. Henry Townsend, the owner of the plantation, was freed by his parents when they bought their own freedom. At the start of the book Henry has fallen ill and dies, leaving Caldonia to run the plantation. Nearby the Townsend place is the plantation owned by William Robbins, a white man who is the richest man in Manchester County. He previously owned both Henry and his parents. The fascinating, pragmatic scenarios that play out in this book, of which what I’ve listed above plays a major role, takes a fresh look at slavery in the American South while exploring the hypocrisies and motives behind the social institution.
There was a lot to like about this book. The concept is a unique one, and something I’d never even considered before picking up Jones’ novel. I didn’t know that freed black people sometimes owned slaves of their own before the Civil War, and I definitely was unaware of the social justification that was at play. Jones sets up a system in which there are three types of African Americans: those who are enslaved, those who have bought their freedom, and those who were born free. Jones acknowledges and explores the clear divides between these three groups in a way that presents the antebellum South as a complex, changeable system, with unspoken rules and the unspoken breaking of them. I liked the historical aspect of The Known World the most; Jones does a seamless job of blending the true with the fictional. He is able to evoke varied emotions in the reader: anger, joy, indignation, disgust, and pride, sometimes within the same scene. He creates myriad characters and also manages to develop most of them independently and completely. He also switches perspective pretty deftly. In these areas, this book is nearly perfect.
The main issue I had with the novel was with Jones’ style. It was extremely fragmented and jumpy. It moved forward and backward in time with little regard for clarity or understanding. Here’s my impression of it:
Sam looked off into the distance and wondered how many hours were left until dinner. His wife was making roast chicken. He smiled and thought of how lucky he was to have a wife who could cook. Twelve years later, Sam would die in a car crash on the way to work. He would not have his seat belt on, and his body would go flying through the windshield before hitting the pavement. He would expire on impact. Sam checked his watch: it was half past four.
This is the kind of stylistic stuff that goes on throughout the entire book. It’s confusing, and it doesn’t get easier as you progress through the book. I’m not saying that it completely ruins it or takes everything away from the characters and plot, but it definitely impacted my enjoyment of the book. I did get used to it enough that I wasn’t shocked every time it happened, which is a good thing because it happens about once a page. The ending is also pretty abrupt; I wouldn’t say that the story felt completely finished when I got to the last page. Stylistically, I didn’t love what Joes does. Otherwise, I thought it he did a strong job.
Overall, I would say that The Known World is worth the read. There really are a lot of great things happening in it. The style is distracting, but if you can get past it to focus on the themes and the questions Jones poses about race as a social construct you won’t be disappointed in this book. I learned a lot and thought about a lot of things that I’d never considered before, and that’s one of the marks of a good read.