The Known World

Such a good book. Everyone should read this book!

4.5 stars because it wasn't an all-time favorite for me. However, I highly recommend this book. It allowed me to consider and understand the institution of slavery and the relationship between slavery and power in ways I had never thought of before. This is a very well-written and very important novel.

This book is on an unusual topic-- black slave owners. I really enjoyed it, though it was a difficult read. There were many characters, some appearing in only one episode. The narrative jumped forward and backward in time. It wasn't exactly difficult to keep track of all the characters and where you were in time, but it took concentration and usually gave me a headache. Nonetheless, highly recommended!

This was an interesting book about slavery, race and families in Manchester County, Virginia. I liked the interactions between the characters, including Moses and Caldonia.

This is an unforgettable book. Edward P Jones tackles not only the horrific and barbaric slave trading history of this country, he even includes topics which arent often spoken of: black slaveowners, what happens to widows of blacks. These topics are interwoven into a tapestry that covers themes that affect us all: who are we, what do we know about this world& where do we fit into it. This should be required reading in high school because it teaches without a heavy hand on aspects of life uncaptured by the usual history textbook.

I first read this book when it first came out in 2003. I looked forward to reading it because I enjoyed Jones' short story collection _Lost in the City_. I was not prepared, though, for how enthralling the book is, or at least was to me. His narrative style is somewhat quirky, as scene shifts happen suddenly, but it works! I read the book twice, which is unusual for me. I think I've only read _Native Son_ and _Invisible Man_ more than once. African Americans owning slaves was a new one for me, so my "Known World" was expanded. The book raises some gritty moral questions, and it is not for the "weak-kneed," for there are some violent parts. _The Known World_ was one of the best novels--if not the best--I've read in the last 10 years or so.

I read this book four years ago but it has stayed with me. It opened my eyes to a piece of history I had not know and made me realize, once again, how complex our relationships with each other are. Definitely recommend it.

The Known World's subject matter is, well, some pretty tough stuff. This is not light reading - but it's also eye-opening and gripping and sad and fascinating. Edward P. Jones's writing is beautiful, keenly observed and elegant. I don't think or hear much about slavery in 2011 except for perhaps the occasional news item about reparations, which seems philosophically limited and which I also know less than nothing about, logistically. The antiseptic notion of "Slavery" as discussed in a high school or college classroom for a few minutes can't hold a candle to the way I experienced slavery in this book. Can empathetic reading count as some kind of moral reparation? Probably not, but it's certainly a much more involved, emotional process than seeing the words "Underground Railroad" in a textbook. Like the best of fiction, The Known World makes the unimaginable real -- and not just real as in imaginable, but real as in living, breathing, even understandable (as opposed to justifiable, which is what your shouting cable anchor/talk-radio personality of choice makes your political philosophy of choice). In these days of editing racial slurs out of Huckleberry Finn and widening cultural divides, it feels more important than ever to make history (troubling as it may be) as well as different cultures and mindsets UNDERSTANDABLE. The narrative style of The Known World takes some getting used to; circuitous and nonlinear, encompassing so much time and so many characters, it can be occasionally dizzying. The omniscient narration consistently describes how or where the characters eventually die and the consequences and outcomes of their lives - flying decades into the future and back again in a sentence. It's jarring at first, yet after acclimating to the style, it feels like each page has been as carefully wrought as a poem. Jones manipulates time so carefully, and layers the characters and story so delicately, that it takes some time to get up to speed with everything. After reading for awhile, I found myself completely immersed: everything became hyper-real - even the more fantastic or inexplicable elements of the story - populated with people you could see and hear, set in a place you used to visit long ago. In some ways this book reminded me of Marilynne Robinson's Gilead - a book many people loved but that I hated - in its self-contained, historical setting, its focus on character over plot, and its lyrical, yet realistic, writing. But while I had a hard time finding anything memorable to take away from Gilead (and was generally bored by it), I can hardly do anything BUT think about The Known World. It's a fantastic and transcendent book.

I loved this book. Very well written and well handled treatment of a difficult subject. The time jumps confused me at first. This novel is told in a very different, non linear style. Peripheral characters have whole backgrounds and sometimes even what will happen to them in the future and sometimes even their descendants. It helped to balance some of the visceral horrors of chattel slavery. It adds depth, texture and richness to this novel. Also I like the exploration of a black, ex slave owning a plantation with slaves. I never really like or understand Henry, Caldonia and Fern who are the main black slave owning characters. I never really try to. I also like the way the white characters are handled.

I had just finished readhing "Cane River", which is different author but the settings and stories are similar, expecting to love this book as much as "Cane River". What a huge mistake. I couldn't even finish it. It started out slow and never seemed to gain steam. I think I stopped reading after about 100 pages - more than I should have!