Book Review: The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

The Prophets: a novel by Robert Jones, Jr.

Genre: Literary Fiction/History Fiction

This book has: multiple viewpoints, LGBTQ+ themes, graphic violence, strong language

Page Count: 378 (Penguin Random House Hardcover Edition)

My rating: 4/5

Synopsis: Samuel and Isaiah belong to each other and life is as simple as that. Their job is to tend to the barn and its animals and this is also the place that houses their love, where they care for one another in secret. A fellow slave wishes to gain favor with the slave master by preaching God's word, but with this comes the idea of the impurity that surrounds Samuel and Isaiah's love and slowly the others begin to turn on them. "The Prophets masterfully reveals the pain and suffering of inheritance, but is also shot through with hope, beauty, and truth, portraying the enormous, heroic power of love (quoted from the book sleeve)."

For starters, I loved this book. I have read several fiction books about slavery and plantation-life, but this by far has to be my favorite. Not only does Jones give a vast cast of characters ranging in rank from the stable hands to field workers to cooks, but higher ranking members such as the slave master and his wife to their son who will one day inherit the plantation. I was pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of viewpoints from all of these characters and even presented with a new view and insights into what the thoughts of individual rankings might have been back then and how things may not have changed as much today's thinking even though we might like to thing differently. Jones does a phenomenal job of capturing the humanity in these characters making me cheer on for the main characters Samuel and Isaiah and their pure innocent love, feel the pain of the abused and abuser, to understanding and almost pitying the pride of Paul the slave master.

Not only does this book include the present day characters and events from multiple view points, but it also includes chapters of their ancestors back in the bountiful lands of Africa and their travels here to the Americas. It encompasses their beautiful lives and the hardships that they faced with taking away from the main story of Samuel and Isaiah, actually enhancing the themes of love and all the forms it may come in. The Prophets was also filled with heartbreaking twists and gasping surprises that kept me turning page after page, needing to know what would happen next.

For the faint of heart readers, I do leave a message of warning that there are themes/scenes of graphic violence consisting of physical and sexual. The n-word is also used frequently due to the nature of this book and may make some readers uneasy. Having said this though, the writing is overall quite eloquent throughout and the scenes mentioned above are done tastefully.

Despite loving this book, I felt I could not give it five stars. I enjoyed the different perspective but there is also the shift in narrative near the end and the writing almost becomes more prose-like and abstract than the rest of the book had been. There is also a touch of magical-realism (or at least a play of shadows that may or may not be imagined as personified inner demons) and this, to me, didn't always seem to fit into the writing. Jones' writing is beautiful sometimes a bit over descriptive and I hate to admit that I got lost in the majesty of his words a few times which made it difficult to fully understand what was happening. There were a few passages that I had to go back and read, but that's not necessary ever a bad thing.

Overall, I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good read filled with love and pain and hope. For a book filled with such strong voices of beautiful characters that will have you falling in love until the very end.