THE KNOWN WORLD by Edward P. Jones (first published 2003)
It was in Paul Verhoeven’s 1983 suspense film The Fourth Man that I first heard an author speak of the art of fiction as the ability to “lie the truth”. This principle is something Edward P. Jones follows very effectively with this Pulitzer Prize-winning debut novel.
It would be logical to assume that his accounts of 19th century slave owners, both black and white, were based on extensive research. There are, after all, quotes from 1806 act of the Virginia House of Delegates and extracts from the 1840 U.S. census. However, Jones admits all these ‘facts’ came out of his head. Although he bought a lot of books on the subject but ended up not reading any of them and made things up instead.
In one interview he justified this unorthodox approach by saying “slavery comes with its own emotions”, implying that writing from the gut is better than getting bogged down by details. It certainly makes for a novel full of incident and mini-fables that tells you far more than a straight historical account ever could. Continue reading
