The Known World traces the lives of five sectors of a mid-1800s community - - wealthy whites, working whites, white trash, free Blacks, and slaves. The story opens with the death of Henry Townsend, a freed Black man who owned several slaves. From that point, Jones introduces us to a host of characters through flashbacks and periods after Henry's funeral. The notion of slave owners in the form of freed Blacks or those born as products of plantation owners and their lover has always been mind-boggling and disturbing. Still, I was ready to be overwhelmed and bothered by this in order to gain some understanding, some clarity about the mind sets of these people.

Unfortunately, Jones failed at doing anything beyond skirting over lots of potentially powerful moments. For example, his parents, Augustus and Mildred, bought Henry Townsend out of slavery when he was still a young boy. By his early twenties, still close to his former "massa", Henry goes home to share the news of his first slave purchase - - Moses. Augustus, a gifted carpenter who had toiled his entire life for whatever freedom he and his family could have in those times was understandably upset. Mildred just sat in disbelief stating that she never thought she would have to tell her son that he should not own another person. Henry failed to understand his parents' pain. Yet, Jones gives us only about two or three pages of this. Where was the depth here and all over this book? Where was the internal struggle that surely had to rage within the minds of some Blacks who owned slaves? What about the development of a caste system and the whole light skin/dark skin scenario that still exists in some communities? All of these things were mentioned. None of these issues were addressed.

When I completed the nearly 400-page novel, I did not necessarily feel that I had wasted my time. But, I did experience a kind of longing for more, commensurate with only getting to lick the cake spoon, yet never tasting the cake.