The Known World by Edward P. Jones Mirific chef d’oeuvre

 The Known World by Edward P. Jones

Mirific chef d’oeuvre

This is a fabulous, mesmerizing book.
And it is not even what I generally like, belonging to a category that I avoid.
Seeing as this masterpiece has managed to intrigue, fascinate and then enthrall a reader that tends towards superficiality, I guess it is more than impressive.
For quite some time, I have been reluctant to engage with books that have depressing subjects, deal with suffering on a large scale.
And this book contains suffering on a colossal scale, for we follow the stories of slaves and their masters.
At times, it has reminded me of 12 Years a Slave- and there’s a film that I haven’t even seen completely, on account of the violence.
Then something in Moses-an overseer on a plantation where he becomes intimidate with the widow- owner- made me think of Django.
In Django Unchained, we have a slave that rules over the plantation of Leonardo di Caprio, played by Samuel L. Jackson.
Moses had the same ruthless character, at least for some good chapters in the book, up to the point where his karma or whatever catches up to him.
Henry Townsend is one of the heroes of this story and to begin with I sympathized with him and his ordeal as a small slave boy.
He used to wait in the rain or in freezing cold for his master, William Robbins, until his father- Augustus Townsend pays the last installment for his freedom.
Oddly, Henry remains on excellent terms with his master, and not only that, but follows in his footsteps to become a slave master himself.
It is for the first that I have heard about black people owning slaves- it would seem out of place to use the present politically correct term here- I guess.
Most of them are not as bad as William Robbins, who is himself a complex character, given that for all his cruelty and racism, he did treat Henry well, from one point on and he fathered two children with a black woman that he loved.
This is a chef d’oeuvre that kept me mesmerized, even when the plot moved back and forth from what is happening “now” to the distant future, when one character or another is dead at the venerable age of ninety or so.
There are a few despicable men that torture slaves, steal freed men, women and children to sell them back into slavery.
The ordeal of the African American is well known and wonderfully depicted here, with a vision that is not biased- the harm that was inflicted by black upon black is also revealed- with one of the odious characters being a Cherokee Indian, which I found surprising.
There are many unexpected turns and twists and I was frequently caught expecting one thing, only to find the opposite taking place.
Obviously, I will not give in any details to spoil any pleasure, but I have to say that an unusual number of characters appear in this masterpiece, some of them die, and others escape and make it when we expect it less.
Some the cruel ones get what they deserve, but a good deal of innocents suffer for no good reason and I was very sorry for them.
Which is yet again very rare for this reader- for when you give me twenty names to remember for key personages you lose me, I cannot keep concentrated with my procrastination and would not bother to keep track of so many guys popping up on the pages.
It is a small miracle that this magic book kept me going for so long, when my habit is to look for hedonic experiences and any cloud may suffice to change the book with a
-          Nah, this work does not look like it will offer extreme joy
-          Let us take a look at another
Shame on me, but there it is- with luck, more books like The Jnown World will be in store and when the new ones finish I will read again…Appointment in Samarra, The Death of the Heart, Of Human Bondage...to give just three examples.


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