You ever read a book that fills you with so much Black rage you think you could burn down the entirety of the United States, like really just light a match and torch it all, let this whole imperialist pisspot of a country roast? Oh, okay.

There's more ants than there are grasshoppers, by the way.

This is a powerful book filled with so much pain. It’s definitely worth reading, but I can’t say that I enjoyed reading it. My main complaints: there are so many characters and they each seem to want their chance to shine, which is not my favorite style of storytelling; also, the whole book felt very heavy-handed, like it was trying really hard to be Important Literature. I would’ve enjoyed this more if it focused purely on Isaiah and Samuel’s relationship, or even a comparison between them and their ancestors. 

This was a very hard read. I think a lot of it went over my head honestly. The time of enslaved people with absolutely no holding back and no filters. I was constantly in tears or sick to my stomach. Which is definitely the seeming point. Isaiah and Samuel find love only again to be ripped apart. There was never going to be a happy ending during this time. It’s just all pain. Which makes it a hard, but necessary read. 

This is a book that begins built on two ideas I thought were really gripping:
1) The polyphonic choral concept, which is overall the strongest thing about the book, and
2) The concept of the growth of an idea in a community, in this case homophobia among the enslaved.

The choral narration, as stated above, is the strongest thing about the novel as it runs throughout its entirety and often provided relief when I wanted to abandon the story. The chorus serves as a kind of chaotic good to our main focus, Samuel and Isaiah, and to tie in ancestral practices that remind us of that second concept the novel is ruminating on.

This second concept, the growth of homophobia in the enslaved community at the heart of the novel, is also incredibly interesting. Watching how and why a community might adopt an idea they heretofore had no concept of or interest in was an interesting piece of, likely historically accurate, social experimentation. And watching it played against the ideas on gender and sexuality brought over from tribal communities made it all the more impactful.

My biggest struggle in the book was when the story began to devolve from this second concept as we begin to have chapters from the perspective of the white characters in the story. The idea still lives in the novel as the driving force, but we are introduced to the narrative interests of the white enslavers, which becomes the central focus of most of the novel's back third. While I understand why the choice was made in the interest of servicing Jones's plot, it was far less interesting than the work he had been doing so far.

While significantly smaller, I also had a couple of other issues with my reading of the story. The first is that I wanted Isaiah and Samuel to be the focus of the novel, as I had been led to believe. Even though I knew going in that the vast majority of the story was not told from their point of view, I thought more of the story would be about them, yet the story was really more about the way they are used as pawns to play out the interests of other characters. I am also curious about the cultural conversations of the characters. I would have to read more firsthand writing from the period, but it sometimes seemed like the cultural ideas were more reflective of our modern revisiting of the period rather than period appropriate.

Despite my qualms, this book does have incredibly important things to say that I think make it a great pick for a book club discussion, which is the context for which I read it. There are lots of ideas and perspectives that feel new, either in their discussion or in their approach. Furthermore, until we begin to get some of those later white-perspective chapters, I think this is one of the gentler books on slavery as Jones seeks to both love his Black characters and show the love between them. Finally, the last three chapters go a long way toward making the ending of the novel a powerful piece that will stick with you.

Quotes:
"Our responsibility is to tell you the truth. But since you were never told the truth, you will believe it is a lie. Lies are more affectionate than truth and embrace you with both arms. Prying you loose is our punishment." (Page 2)
"That was good, though, because some things should never be mentioned, didn't have to be, not even among friends. There were many ways to hide and save one's self from doom, and keeping tender secrets was one of them." (Page 40)
"This wasn't a framework for liberty; this was the same tyranny of Europe, only naked and devoid of baubles." (Page 126)
"'Some people pain is eternal. Some people worship they pain. Don't know who they are without it. Hold on to it like they gon' die if they let it go.'" (Page 167)
"The North, meanwhile, still couldn't answer the questions of who would do the work freed slaves would necessarily leave behind and how those unfortunate souls would be paid once the position of slave was abolished. These men were bad at business, though there was every indication they were just as greed." (Page 202)

Wow! How does one even talk about a book like this? It feels like too much for my little brain to put into words without the support of a uni lit course discussion. This is to say... This novel is incredible and rich with so much that could be discussed.

First and foremost, I absolutely loved the writing of this novel. It was beautiful and poetic. I have seen people complain that it is too dense, but I think it is perfect. Do I think I understood everything that was said in the novel? No. But I also think this is the type of novel that is meant to be reread in order to get more out of it.

In addition, my reading experience with this book was incredible because of  how it centered the story of two queer Black men. A lot of the narrative is spent on the characters around the protagonists sensing the beauty Samuel and Isaiah brought into the world by being themselves and loving each other. Even those who worked toward tearing them apart where unable to dismiss the light that they brought to the world. The other characters couldn't always understand Samuel and Isaiah, but they could not deny the beauty they brought to the world. 

Furthermore, another of the wonderful things about this novel is that it does not focus on any one perspective. Slavery and the experiences of the enslaved are presented from a myriad of perspectives. The characters are never reduced to cartoonish depictions of good vs evil. Every single character with a point of view had nuance to them and were presented as having both good and bad in them. It was fantastic because even the truly terrible people you could see where they were coming from. The narrative text didn't depict their actions as any less horrible, but it made the characters feel more human.

If I have one complaint about this novel, it is that towards the end of it the author purposefully misleads you so you don't fully know what has happened after a certain plot point. The perspectives keep changing before you as the reader truly know the fallout of a character's particular actions. In this case, the plot point involves Samuel, Timothy, and Paul. 

Other than that minor issue I had with the pacing/plotting of the novel, I thought this book was spectacular. I want to reread it eventually (when I am not as emotionally devastated. because trust me this book crushed me) in order to get even more from my reading experience.