The Known World | Edward P. Jones

The Known World | Edward P. Jones | Good as a novel, great as an analysis of social custom

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The Known World

	The Known World Edward P. Jones Amistad, 2003 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 296 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A True Piece of Art

I read this book a few years ago and it still remains one of my favorites. I am disappointed to see that other reviewers didn't appreciate the complexity of this story. I have read books with far more characters and difficult plots to follow, for example The Master and Margarita. Edward P. Jones visually creates a story of love, sacrifice, horror and triumph. I was pulled in right from the first few pages. This is not a story of just one character but of a community of people surviving the enslaved south. I normally shy away from these sorts of books because I find myself angry by the end. This book too contains many atrocities, but I was swept away by the determination and eventual triumph of several of the characters. The complex relationships of the slaves with each other, with slave owners and with law enforcement are haunting. It's a wonderful story and one that I would gladly recommend.

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Good as a novel, great as an analysis of social custom

This book tells the story of a Virginian plantation during the slavery period. When the black proprietor dies, his widow does not have the ruthlesness required to hold the slave community together and everything goes wrong.
As a novel this book is good but not great. The storyline is interesting enough and the events are heart-wrenching, but there are too many characters, and there is too much hopping between dates, locations, and viewpoints. The original perspective, with different third-person viewpoints interspersed with historical facts, make the story hard to get into.

As a social analysis however, the book beautifully illustrates how the system of slavery is sustainable as the interplay between the customs, beliefs and motives of the participants. The slaveowners and those who uphold the law are driven by lust for power, greed, and sadism, but also genuine belief in the divine justness of racial separation and benevolence in guiding what they believe to be less worthy people. The subordinated display acceptance, resignation or fruitless resistance. The result is a social system that shapes the characters and their actions and is at the same time created by them. Jones skillfully shows how even the most horrible racist acts carry a sense of inevitability and justness within their context. Symbolic is the map of the county ("The known world"), that the pious and honest sheriff of the community has in his office.
At the same time, the book shows that the system is fragile, and depends crucially on the authority and the threat of violence by the powerful few. The decline of the plantation and the unravelling of the status quo show that there is no space for moderates within the slavery system.

In short, the book brilliantly lays bare how the system of slavery trappes its participants in a self-enforcing but fragile web of beliefs and customs. This more than makes up for the unfortunately fragmented storyline.

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Time well spent

Not sure what other reviewers were looking for, but this was definately a worthwhile read for me. It is thought provoking, and the characters are both interesting and complex. I stopped reading the book when the subject matter became a little uncomfortable, but once I resumed reading, I was very happy that decided to finish it. . . And I didn't even have to try to like it!

reviews: 1, 2, 3, 4, page 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14

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