I’ve been studying prize-winning books this year, taking them apart, learning what I can and letting their stories settle into me. Recently I finished two adult books written by Pulitzer Prize winners.
The Known World, by Edward P. Jones, won the Pulitzer back in 2004. I know this is an old book. It’s been on my list forever, and I finally got around to it.
It is very clear why Jones won the Pulitzer. He is a masterful storyteller and weaves an entire culture into a book. The Known World takes place on a slave plantation during the historical time when slaves were a normal and accepted part of society. Jones builds a world so believable that sometimes The Known World reads very much like a historical text, which I found fascinating. He mentions characters as if they actually exist, weaving in historical events to ground the plot in something that feels like it’s a natural part of history.
The book begins with the death of a slave master, who was a slave himself but bought his own freedom and then came upon wealth by working hard and, eventually, purchased his own slaves. This, of course, was a source of slight tension between him and his slaves—a black man owning slaves was not seen as an empathic thing in those days.
Throughout the book, Jones weaves together many intersecting story lines, examining not only life on the slave plantation but also the intriguing dynamic of the town in which the story takes place and how the sheriff deals with things like slaves escaping and men stealing slaves and, sometimes, free men, and selling them before the authorities can do anything about it. Several horrific acts happened in the book, all characteristic of that time. So The Known World is not just a commentary on the state of human affairs during slave times but also a lesson in the horrors of history.
What I like most about the book is that Jones would take a character involved in a scene, and he would strip them out of the scene for a minute and show readers their future. It was fun to see how their future was impacted by their present and how they were this one particular person at this moment in time, but they would become someone completely different. Someone better, most of the time. It lent a feeling of hope to all the tragedy in the book.
This story took a while to read, because it’s very dense, with lots of great characters and stories and so much wonderful commentary by the author. The Known World is one of those books that will need a little time to sit and unfold in a mind and a heart. Jones highlights part of our history in a way that is horrific and yet beautiful, giving us a story that tells of slave people resilient enough to dream of a better life than slavery.
Here’s one of my favorite quotes from the book:
“When he, Moses, finally freed himself of the ancient and brittle harness that connected him to the oldest mule his master owned, all that was left of the sun was a five-inch-long memory of red orange laid out in still waves across the horizon between two mountains on the left and one on the right.”
It’s a beautiful description of summer isn’t it? You can just see the waves of the sunset. It’s a perfect example of Jones’s storytelling
Let Me Be Frank With You, by Richard Ford, did not win the Pulitzer Prize but was a finalist last year. It’s the story of Frank Bascombe, wandering through life after a hurricane hits close to where he lives. It’s told in four rich, entertaining narratives.
In the first, Frank is meeting with an old friend of his to whom he sold his old beachfront property that’s now been completely destroyed by the hurricane. In the second one, he has a visit from a woman who used to live in his house, and she tells him an appalling story about something that happened when she was a child, in the basement of his house. In the third narrative, Frank goes to visit his ex-wife and gives readers a hilarious look at his underground hatred of her. In the last, he comes to terms with a dying acquaintance who shares a secret with him right before he dies—a confession of sorts.
Frank Bascombe is probably one of the best characters I’ve read in a long time. He had a hilarious voice and interjected commentary on growing older, the state of society and how the people of the world relate to each other, all of which I found delightfully entertaining. I love Frank. I’ll have to read more of Frank, and, thankfully, there are more books with Frank in them because Ford wrote Frank as a series.
Here’s Frank commenting on stress—a great example of why I love him so much:
“(What isn’t ignited by stress? I didn’t know stress even existed in my twenties. What happened that borought it into our world? Where was it before? My guess is it was latent in what previous generations thought of as pleasure but has now transformed the whole psychic neighborhood.)”
Here’s another, where he’s talking about growing older:
“I don’t look in mirrors anymore. It’s cheaper than surgery.”
And here’s one more, where he’s talking about an old dying acquaintance he really can’t stand:
“Mike’s fingers are slender and pretty like a girl’s and have trimmed, pink, well-tended nails. He is a rare breed of asshole.”
You can’t beat that kind of voice.
I hope you enjoyed these book recommendations. Be sure to pick up a free book from my starter library and visit my recommends page to see some of my favorite books. If you have any books you recently read that you think I’d enjoy, contact me. I always enjoy adding to my list. Even if I never get through it all.
