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jstark 's review for:
The Known World
by Edward P. Jones
In The Known World, Edward P. Jones writes about the citizens of the fictional county of Manchester, Virginia in such detail that I had to look it up to make sure it wasn't real. Jones has woven together the stories of all the characters surrounding Henry Townsend, a black man who owned a plantation and enslaved other men and women, and chronicles how the plantation falls apart when Henry dies. Jones has a unique way of writing that introduces a character and circles around their role in the main thread, flashing back to their childhood or forward to their future before returning to their present. The book is long and slow, but worth it. It is hard to read; though it is fiction, it rings with shameful truth of the inhumane oppression of black people in American history that has led to the systemic racism of our present day. Yet Jones still embeds hope into the story. I would recommend it to older/mature teens and adult readers.