The Prophets

I'd be willing to bet that this book becomes a classic someday.

Magical, poetical and deeply moving story of those living on a plantation called Empty, especially two two young men who love each other, the lives they lead and the kingdoms from which they were taken. Also, a love letter to James Baldwin.

Samuel and Isaiah are teenagers enslaved on an isolated plantation in southern Mississippi nicknamed Empty by its human chattel. The one thing that gives the couple comfort in their bleak lives is their deep love for each other. As might be expected, their story ends in tragedy.

Debut author Jones

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depicts the brutality of plantation life in prose so lyrical, it can be hard to tell what is actually happening. I wanted to like this book more than I did. It just seemed to go on forever.

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historical fiction (two gay enslaved men amongst other enslaved people, each with their own concerns and dreams)

I listened to maybe 5 hours of this (and only had 9-1/2 more to go!), but kept getting distracted and wasn't really absorbing the story that well, so I decided to return it early (since

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there was still a waitlist of people wanting to read it). I'd probably do better with it in print.

It is long, but I liked the writing style, and the narrator/reader did an excellent job portraying the various voices. According to the blurb, Samuel and Isaiah have the "main" storyline but I was enjoying hearing the others' viewpoints too; I just wish I could've focused better.

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I think this author and book have greatness within for the right person. It is very dense and I found it hard to read requiring much concentration and re-reading to attempt to understand what the author was saying. Very philosophical and maybe this author has far more intelligence than I as he

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attempts very weighty subjects at a far deeper level than I'm use to. I did not enjoy reading it and it seemed very dark to me despite the author's work to show the love of the main characters. It is realistic in depicting the lives of slaves on plantations in the South and the depth of cruelty white people fell too that has resurrected itself time and again in history as it did in the Holocaust. However to me every time I read it I was depressed and I only persevered in finishing because I hoped there was understanding and meaning for me, but the end was even more obscure and fantasy.

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The word choice and metaphors in this book were excellent. I read it knowing I don't care for magic realism, and that was a real problem for me. I am glad that I read it and learned what I did, but I would have preferred a different genre for the story of slavery in the 1800s and the history of

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Black spirituality.

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This is a captivating novel told in over a dozen voices - each person living on a plantation in Mississippi. The two principle characters are a pair of homosexual slave men who are in love with each other. Other voices include in clude several of the slave women, the plantation owner and his son.

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There are also interludes from the character based chapters titled with Bible references. This is a wonderfully written book that delves deeply into slavery and each character's perpective. Also, the issue of homosexuality in that era is handled deftly. It is hard to believe this is the author's first novel. It is that good.

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This was a difficult read on many levels, not the least of which is the setting and language. A lot of beautiful writing and imagery. I'm unsure if I understood all the metaphorical language and the use of Bible headings as chapter titles.

Very character-driven, lyrical story, but there were a lot of characters to keep straight when listening to an audiobook.

I will say since many chapters directly reference all things biblical, I know much of the meaning of this book went right over my head. I would love an essay explaining the biblical elements. I do enjoy the various perspectives, mostly starting with slaves, then later in the book, the family of

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slave owners. I would have liked more in the book from the minor characters, rather than so much of the slave owners. Somehow the love between two male slaves causes the downfall of a plantation. Such imagery in this unique writing style though, such sorrow but also a gentleness in these sentences for a time that could only be ugly ugly and brutal, everywhere you turned. There is a care to these sentences that balance the brutality. The image of the drowned slaves banding together for vengeance - so powerful. Just wish I could have parcelled out all those biblical connections!
Set this on the shelf beside:
Homegoing - Yaa Gyasi
Toni Morrison

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I've read quite a few books about slavery and whether they were fiction or non-fiction they all horrified me with how inhumane the slavery system was. People treated like chattels, put into bondage, tortured, brutalized, separated, killed, raped...the list goes on. The USA had to have a civil war

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to put a stop to slavery and even then (and still) people of colour were/are treated like second class citizens. Why do I keep reading these books? I think it's because I want to remind myself of the horror so it will (hopefully) be eradicated.

Robert Jones, Jr. tells a compelling story about life on a cotton plantation in Mississippi. In the midst of this place where human beings worked from sunup to sundown six days a week, two men found love in each other's arms. Samuel was born on the Halifax plantation but Isaiah had been born elsewhere and brought to the plantation when he was just a child. Close in age they were put to work together and eventually they took on the work of looking after the livestock and the barn. They slept in the barn and it's a good thing Mississippi stays fairly warm all year because there were holes in the roof and walls. Well-muscled from all their hard work the owner was hoping to get lots of strong children from both men. He was unaware that they were not attracted to women but the rest of the slaves on the property soon figured it out. Amos, a slave trying to curry favour with Mr. Halifax, started to preach on Sundays and when he found out about Samuel and Isaiah he turned the many of the rest against them. It was only a matter of time until Mr. Halifax found out but little did he know that his own son, Timothy, was also attracted to men. Timothy started with Isaiah but then he asked Samuel to come to his bedroom when is father was away. Samuel went but he had decided he was done being submissive.He had convinced some of the other slaves they could overthrow their oppressors and escape to the north. It didn't quite go as planned but one way or another Isaiah and Samuel and a few of the others managed to escape the yoke of slavery.

This book is the author's debut novel but he has an assured and lyrical way of writing. I was reminded of James Baldwin and Toni Morrison and Ta-Nehisi Coates; I sure hope Robert Jones, Jr. has lots more books in him.

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There were four things that drew me to this novel. First, I just love gay romances written by gay men because they will always be authentic. Second, one of the main characters' name is Samuel so I'm automatically have an interest. Thirdly, Jones is compared to fellow gay men Marlon James and James

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Baldwin so I had to read it. Fourthly, it's almost a rarity to read a modern historical fiction novel by a gay man that takes place prior to the 20th century especially among men of color.

Overall, I enjoyed the book but my only issue was the vast number of characters in book that is only ~400 pages long. I felt like the other characters drove away from the main story so rarely told about two black men romantically in love in with each other bygone era.

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“They pushed people into the mud and then called them filthy. They forbade people from accessing any knowledge of the world and then called them simple. They worked people until their empty hands were twisted, bleeding, and could do no more, then called them lazy. They forced people to eat

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innards from troughs and then called them uncivilized. They kidnapped babies and shattered families and then called them incapable of love. They raped and lynched and cut up people into parts, and then called the pieces savage. They stepped on people’s throats with all their might and asked why the people couldn’t breathe.”

Story of a relationship between two men, Samuel and Isaiah, slaves on a plantation in antebellum Mississippi. It is told from many perspectives of people who live there. It also moves back in time to reflect on stealing people from Africa and transporting them in horrific conditions on slave ships, providing voice to the characters’ ancestors.

I have not previously heard of a historic imagining of a gay relationship of the era. Of course the terminology is not used as it is of more recent origin. The writing is poetic, elaborate, and often indirect. This indirectness occasionally makes it difficult to discern meaning. I kept asking myself, “What is the author trying to say here?”

For example: “But time does not function the way you think it does. We knew this before and we know it now. So judgment must come soon because you have made the conflict, which is now your blood, a matter of honor, and this mostly leads to arrogance. This is the thing that pumps through your heart. Or will. Or has. Sometimes, we must remember that you perceive time as three separate occasions, when for us, it is only one. It will be the thing that pumps through your heart, if you are not careful, if you do not heed. Do you understand?”

The chapters are entitled with books of the Christian Bible, and I was not always sure what connections were being made. As one would expect in a slave narrative, it includes rape, brutal beatings, and treating people as less than human. I feel the poetic parts enabled me to get a sense of the author’s message – respect for a person’s humanity – but, for me, it could have been more clearly articulated.

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This book was painful and hard to read. It was not the kind of book you read for fun. Although beautifully written, it’s heartbreaking and deeply, deeply sad.

The language of this book is so saturated with the author's articulate expression that brushing against it leaves the parched mind overflowing. I questioned whether I wanted that articulation, sharp or rich, used in service of the brutalities of a slave narration. In this account the stone which

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wears through the illusion of order on the plantation is the love of the two young men who work together in the stables. At least in this story it is not only the lives of the people enslaved which are destroyed, but that is small enough grace for the plot, as abundant grace is in the language used to bring the lives of those people before our eyes.

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