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Fiction. African American Fiction. Literature. Short Stories. HTML: In a daring and fierce debut work of fictionâ??the likes of which comes along once in a generationâ??Virginia's landscapes, emblems, and Thomas Jefferson's historic plantation set the stage for a cast of unforgettable characters fighting for their right to exist in America. A young woman descended from Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings driven from her neighborhood by a white militia. A university professor studying racism by conducting a secret social experiment on his own son. A single mother desperate to buy her first home even as the world hurtles toward catastrophe. Each fighting to survive in America. Tough-minded, vulnerable, and brave, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's precisely imagined debut explores burdened inheritances and extraordinary pursuits of belonging. Set in the near future, the eponymous novella, "My Monticello," tells of a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. Led by Da'Naisha, a young Black descendant of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, they seek refuge in Jefferson's historic plantation home in a desperate attempt to outlive the long-foretold racial and environmental unravelling within the nation. In "Control Negro," hailed by Roxane Gay as "one hell of story," a university professor devotes himself to the study of racism and the development of ACMs (average American Caucasian males) by clinically observing his own son from birth in order to "painstakingly mark the route of this Black child too, one whom I could prove was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there." Johnson's characters all seek out home as a place and an internal state, whether in the form of a Nigerian widower who immigrates to a meager existence in the city of Alexandria, finding himself adrift; a young mixed-race woman who adopts a new tongue and name to escape the landscapes of rural Virginia and her family; or a single mother who seeks salvation through "Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse." United by these characters' relentless struggles against reality and fate, My Monticello is a formidable collection that bears witness to this country's legacies and announces the arrival of a wildly original new voice in American fiction. "A group of talented narrators deliver these short stories set in Virginia, which focus on the lives of African Americans." â??AudioFile Earphone Award Winner A Macmillan Audio production from Henry Holt and Company… (more)
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Lines:
Later, after we’d gotten together in earnest, after the air had grown cold enough to draw frost from our words, Knox and I took a giddy selfie on the Lawn, our bodies angled close. I felt short, of course, nestled there in the pit of his arm. Knox smelled like castile soap and wood smoke, since it was finally cold enough that he’d begun to use the fireplace in his dorm. I remember I could feel him peering down at the crown of my head with such adoration, my hair pulled taut to a puff at my neck, a bind that he would undo that same night with trembling, reverent fingers. Posing there, I knew there was nothing so peculiar between us, between any one person and the next. But when we looked at the result, we had to pretend it wasn’t a jab, the way the flash could hardly contain us—it blew out Knox’s fine features and burned mine to pitch.
KJ skulked near the Jaunt, dragging his suitcase, a thin scar on his forehead arching like a second brow, giving his young face a look of near-constant wonder.
In the summers of my childhood, seemed like you could always hear the ice-cream truck down the road, its eerie carnival jingle, and the creepy pale driver who would trade hot quarters for something melty and sweet.
To me guns meant indiscriminate power, the risk of fatally misjudging someone else’s worth.
She looked uninjured, but her eyes were too dark, as if the brown centers had eaten the whites.
Each breath left her chest curved like a question, one that might not be answered.
Thank you to my storyteller mother, my judicious father, my bighearted big brother, my kind sis-in-law, and my truth-teller son. (I want to leave you a better world, but I’m afraid I may only leave you stories of longing for it.)
I was impressed with the writing and the author , an art teacher in the public schools, who, at 50 published her first collection. Her other stories included:
Control negro (spoiler warnings)
First person account written by a black professor who has fathered a child in order to play out his theory about average white Caucasians vs black men. He tries to figure out if raising a child a certain way, exposing him to all the right moves would prevent the racism encountered by others. He even calls the cops on his own son as an experiment, one that ultimately proves him wrong.
Virginia is not your home
Melancholy tale of a girl who tries to escape her small town in Virginia, changes her name, becomes accepted in first class life because she attends a boarding school,paid for by her mother's cleaning of the dean's house. She travels to Europe, marries a photographer of some renown. Eventually they have two children and start to lose their wealth, move back to Virginia. Her mother winds up in a home, her kids resent her, her husband leaves, but worse, she is recognized as Virginia again and hates it.
"Don’t accept the moldy hymnals, the marquee salvations—the wayward way that Momma courts heaven like a scornful lover."
Something sweet or our tongues.
Told in third person, the we describes a group of ten year old boys on a school day. They are unruly for the teachers, follow the lead of the biggest bully, and beat up a fellow student. The pleasure it brings them is like the candy the nurse supplies to the diabetic girl in the class
BUYING A HOUSE AHEAD OF THE APOCALYPSE
A mom looking for the right place to move to as the end of things begins. She gives advice on what to look for and what to avoid and what mistakes she has suffered from, hoping her daughter will reunite with her.
Interesting style , very bleak.
"Be ready for the emergency inside the emergency, for when the hordes bang against your door and you find you’ve grown so lonesome too, so ravenous, really, that you rush to let them in."
King of Xandria
Mr. Attah lives in Alexandria where he has brought his children after leaving Lagos, after his wife was killed by young terrorist. He had a job in hospitality but was let go for complaining. Now he pretends to go to work so that his children don't know. His daughter Justina, works for a paper company; his son, his promise, is in 10th grade and struggling. The school keeps trying to tell Mr. Attah that Alex needs special ed services but he gets emotional and confrontational until they finally bring his son in on the IEP meeting and where Alex gets his dad to okay the help he knows he needs.
Sad poignant story without much hope for the future.
Quote: "I felt that knotted tie to Monticello, my bond by blood and water - as master and slave. My ancestors had conceived of this house and bloodied their hands to build and maintain it."
My Monticello is the title of the novella included in this collection. It is set in Charlottesville,VA in what I assume to be the near future. Chaos has ensued and white men are "taking back" the country. A mixed group ends up fleeing together to Jefferson's home, Monticello. The main character is a young woman who is related to Jefferson through her mother's line, going back to Sally Hemmings. I thought it was very effective to set the place of refuge for this group at Monticello, which, as the large slave plantation of one of America's founding fathers, could be viewed as one of the seeds of the problem in the first place.
This is an impressive debut collection that is culturally relevant and a pleasure to read. I recommend.
Original publication date: 2021
Author’s nationality: American
Original language: English
Length: 215 pages
Rating: 4 stars
Format/where I acquired the book: purchased kindle book
Why I read this: review by Beth/BLBera
My Monticello is a collection of stories, a stunning debut is comprised of six stories of astonishing range, and written in prose.
Well…the
Virginia is Not Your Home, written in prose form, was a very interesting read. A sad, but hopeful ending.
Something Sweet on Our Tongues, reckons with institutionalized racism in schools. Funny, child’s play, hunger, diabetic, bullying, poverty. WOW!
Buying a House Ahead of the Apocalypse, was a wonder to me. I was lost on the premise of its storytelling.
The King of Xandria, features Mr. Attah. A Nigerian transformed to the United States with his two children, addressing the collateral damage wrought by the trauma endured by immigrants prior to leaving their homelands. It’s a sad story that probably rings true for immigrants who are struggling for a better life.
My Monticello is the main story of the six. A collective of Black and Brown residents decamp to Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello, seeking refuge where the Unite the Right rally has cast a long shadow and white supremacists pillage the downtown area.
It took me awhile to get into the cadence of Johnson’s writing style. The stories are chilling, thought-provoking and artistically crafted, showing Johnson's amazing writing ability. The cultural makeup of the characters was appreciated. The suspense of how the main story would end, was the highlight. This is an outstanding collection to literary fiction. Detailed with individual courage and systemic racism, and peppered with resistance, hope and love.