Late night reading...an insomniac's adventure...

Often when I read late at night, the engagement with a book will not let me go.  I will read until my eyes will not stay open and there is no choice but to close the covers and close my eyes.  Yet, the story remains as I try to fall asleep.  Last night, I was reading the last 100 pages of the Pulitzer Prize winner The Known World by Edward P. Jones. 

It is the story of the antebellum south and the interweaving lives of the Black slaveowners, twenty years before the Civil War.  The story opens with the death of Henry Townsend. a former slave, now master of 33 slaves on his 50 acre land in Virginia.  Just as he had been freed and liberated from the shackles of slavery, he faces death with the uncertainty of what will happen to all he has built for the future.  The intersecting lives of the masters, slaves, poor whites and "law enforcement" create a masterpiece that grabs the reader, slowly, deliberately and won't let go.  So too, with forty pages left to read, I closed the book to finish today...yet the characters would not leave my early sleep and dreams...and I woke with a start at 1am and headed with the book in hand to the family room.  The saga would have to be completed before I could rest.

It is not an easy read...but nudges the reader along slowly and methodically, sharing the horrific realities of life as a slave.  It is a book that stays with you forever.

Worldcat

This year, I read three novels dealing with slavery:

Mudbound, by Hillary Jordan

I read this winner of the 2006 Bellwether Prize in one trip last summer from ALA in Chicago.  We had two stopovers...which was fine with me...more time to read without distraction.  As we were approaching LAX, I was turning the last page, filled with tears. 

It is a story of  Laura McAllan, a college-educated Memphis schoolteacher who in 1946, moves to Mudbound, a farm on the Mississippi Delta.  This was not her choice to become a farmer and she finds life without indoor plumbing and electricity challenging.  She is caught within a culture of racism and the Klan and her life changes dramatically when her husband's brother Jamie comes to town and befriends the son of her close Black friend, also a veteran.

(The prize was founded by Barbara Kingsolver to reward books of conscience, social responsibility, and literary merit.)
Worldcat

The Help by Kate Stockett

A compelling read.  The story takes place in 1962, during the early days of the Civil Rights Movement.  Eugenia Skeeter Phelan is  just out of college and has returned home to Jackson, Mississippi with the ambition to become a writer.  As one who leaves home and goes away, she returns as an relectant outsider, out of sync with her racist social circle.  With the help of her friend's housekeeper, she earns her trust and engages Black maids in telling their stories of their lives living with their white taskmasters.  Incredible pacing, this work becomes a page turner, and I cannot help but admit that I flipped forward to find out the ending.  I have only done that once before but frankly, the tension was so great and I would not sleep at night without knowing what happened.

Highly recommended.

Worldcat

All three books are recommended...unforgettable reads.  You'll find my copies in the Shatford Library.