Author Robert Jones, Jr. writes a blog titled Son of Baldwin that reflects the impact and power of James Baldwin's work upon his life and culture. The Prophets, Jones' very great novel about two gay slaves struggling to survive bondage in Mississippi is a glorious work, reflecting Baldwin influence. Samuel and Isaiah suffer bondage but emotionally they are independent, having found the other. Each man is a refuge for his partner from the daily abuse endured. Each provides a haven of sorts. The Prophets is the most unapologetically queer fiction written about gay black men since Giovanni's Room. That alone would make it memorable and important. But there is so much more.
The Prophets recalls the lyricism of Song of Solomon and the searing magical realism of Beloved. Two of Toni Morrison's most powerful works have clearly informed this strange, powerful, and transcendent novel. The lives of Samuel and Isaiah unfold on the plantation the slaves call Empty. It is a place that purposely and relentlessly leaves you without anything like optimism. Not even hope. A sadistic and chilling "massa" drains life out of his hapless, cruel wife while abusing and assaulting house servant Maggie and Essie. The former exacts murderous revenges while the latter envisions resurrection--hacking and stabbing her captors before all can be shot. Essie's son from concubinage is called Solomon to remind her always the boy is but half her own. Half a part she loathes. There is no Sentimental Dixie in these pages--Mammy and Prissy are truly gone with the wind--and good riddance.
A great measure of the power of The Prophets comes from the realization the lives of Samuel and Isaiah are in some ways even worse than the suffering found in Morrison's fiction. In Beloved slaves and families at least have each other. In the Prophets two men in love makes them pariahs or at best, grudgingly accepted and therefore doubly victimized by slavery and their fellow slaves. Their ostracism is twice cruel--branded by their skins' color and their hearts' attraction. These two men and the women, Sarah, Maggie and Essie are a kind of resistance to both the white man's culture, religion and values which they despise and resist in thought and deed.
Occupying the middle ground are Amos and Be Auntie (Beulah) who are complicit in their people's enslavement. The first a proselytizer, spoon feeding Christianity so slaves meekly accept their captivity, the second oppressing the girls she raises and elevating boys above them so one day as men they will sustain a patriarchy that has diminished her beyond measure. Jones does not judge these people, however wrong the behavior. We see them instead as collateral damage in an inhumane system. The denouement is sparked by massa's son Timothy who is attracted to Samuel and Isaiah, and uses his position and white privilege to exploit them further. It sparks a stunning and violent conclusion that left me thinking, we reap what we sow. This is unflinching and painful story-telling. But it is also redemptive. James Baldwin, I think, would have been impressed. As would, I think, Toni Morrison. I was absolutely amazed and enthralled.
A brilliant work.
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Reviews with images
Calling it early: Best Book of 2021
I am an obsessive reader, so am fairly shrewd in that I rarely say this about any books. But, The Prophets is one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading in my lifetime. Robert Jones Jr. writes in a unique prose, painting layers of painful history into the characters’ backstories that gives you a window into their minds and hearts. Most compelling, I thought was his interjections of a story about an unsullied kingdom in Africa. The way their existence is described brings to mind such purity and peace. The first time this story was introduced, the end of the chapter gave me chills as you are filled with horror and dread at the implications of such a visitor’s arrival. The line, “And I am here to bring you the good news,” immediately brings an additional element to the story that I haven’t seen explored much before in literature. The book mostly follows the narratives of its characters mixed with interludes that give the characters and setting a biblical quality. The characters are mainly the owners and slaves who live on “Empty”- a plantation where death seems like the only release from torment. The characters’ past trials and inner flaws are laid bare for the reader in an intensity you don’t encounter in most fiction. Throughout the book, you clearly recognize the pure and other-worldly love of Samuel and Isaiah. Both resonate an absolute goodness that is initially brilliant for the other characters to witness. That is, until “the good word” begins to put their love in a different context. You feel like the pressure-cooker situation in the book is building in the last 1/3. It finally bursts in a climatic ending, where the retribution is teeming with brutal realism- twinged with spirituality and symbolism. It’s a wonder when a writer takes such a grip of your senses that you find yourself experiencing emotions you had never felt through your years of consuming literature. If you are a reader and you don’t pick this one up, you are doing yourself a disservice.
Top reviews from the United States
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Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2021
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2021
Calling it early: Best Book of 2021
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2021
I am an obsessive reader, so am fairly shrewd in that I rarely say this about any books. But, The Prophets is one of the best books I have had the pleasure of reading in my lifetime. Robert Jones Jr. writes in a unique prose, painting layers of painful history into the characters’ backstories that gives you a window into their minds and hearts. Most compelling, I thought was his interjections of a story about an unsullied kingdom in Africa. The way their existence is described brings to mind such purity and peace. The first time this story was introduced, the end of the chapter gave me chills as you are filled with horror and dread at the implications of such a visitor’s arrival. The line, “And I am here to bring you the good news,” immediately brings an additional element to the story that I haven’t seen explored much before in literature. The book mostly follows the narratives of its characters mixed with interludes that give the characters and setting a biblical quality. The characters are mainly the owners and slaves who live on “Empty”- a plantation where death seems like the only release from torment. The characters’ past trials and inner flaws are laid bare for the reader in an intensity you don’t encounter in most fiction. Throughout the book, you clearly recognize the pure and other-worldly love of Samuel and Isaiah. Both resonate an absolute goodness that is initially brilliant for the other characters to witness. That is, until “the good word” begins to put their love in a different context. You feel like the pressure-cooker situation in the book is building in the last 1/3. It finally bursts in a climatic ending, where the retribution is teeming with brutal realism- twinged with spirituality and symbolism. It’s a wonder when a writer takes such a grip of your senses that you find yourself experiencing emotions you had never felt through your years of consuming literature. If you are a reader and you don’t pick this one up, you are doing yourself a disservice.
Reviewed in the United States on January 28, 2021
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Reviewed in the United States on February 27, 2021
Top reviews from other countries
yahuan
The Life of Black Americans as slaves on plantations
Reviewed in Canada on April 27, 2024FRANCISCO
Not as advertised in the article
Reviewed in Mexico on June 22, 2023
FRANCISCO
Reviewed in Mexico on June 22, 2023
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Greg Dunn
Searing and chilling. Harrowing but heartwarming. Tragic. Transcendent.
Reviewed in Germany on June 1, 2021
