Known or unknown

The coronavirus is spreading like a fire in mainland China, and also my city Xi’an. We’re confined in our house for days so far without any activities but reading books, or watching some movies. The weather here is better than before, and there’s barely a person or a car in the street. Everyone is confined.

Enjoying a good novel is always my favorite thing to do. Turning the pages, being immersed in the plot, walking around with the characters… I just turned to be a god-like that could fly there to watch the things happening.

The book “The Known World” is such a great book, even though I am not a black man. It conveys stories very differently which is beyond my reading history(might also due to my limited experience). It spanned a very long duration and covered a bunch of families and people. It’s easy to get lost and mistake among persons, but the authors just can use the hints or habits to bring you back to that character. You remembered what happened to him or her, and you read on what is happening and is going to happen.

The most complete story is about the Townsend family, the parents and the son and his wife. It is a sad story for what happened for the family, e.g the early death of Henry, the reselling of the father, the shooting death of the mother. Meanwhile, it’s also someway good, e.g Henry’s learning how to read, how to grow his plantation, how his parents try to buy them free, how his wife tries her way of life, etc. But the deep-rooted inequality, the profound race issue, the white supremacy are always there haunting like a ghost.

Learning how to read, growing your property, buying more slaves, protecting your family, are not enough at all when the foundation is wrong. You cannot pursue your own happiness, you risk everything to be close to her you love, and you run away ending up being punished cruelly.

We believe everyone is borned equally which is always and only on the paper. Everyone knows it’s a lie and they fight for bringing that to reality. I heard someone often says they go too far and everyone is too careful about political correctness, while if you ask yourself in the late night whether you are still discriminating another race or group, maybe their fight is not hard enough.

Rights are not free dropping from the sky, and they’re what people in many generations fight for and sacrifice for. We enjoy a less discriminated and equal-ish society and we shouldn’t forget those who died for.

The author is very good at writing even when this is his first novel. It’s really hard when you try to cover so much and not get the readers lost, but Edward did a good job.

I am really looking forward to Edward Jones’s next novel.