One reason I wanted to read "The Known World" was a review that compared it to "Middlesex," as another epic family story, a "great American novel." The two novels won the Pulitzer Prize in succession.
Do you see similarities between the two?
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I don't know that I would have thought to compare the two. There are similarities in the handling of chronology and the epic family feel to the story, but I think the heart and soul of Middlesex is its powerhouse of a first-person narrator, which, among other things, lends a deep, almost engulfing intimacy to the story, and which, for me at least, really has no counterpart in the Jones book.
I did think a time or two about Maus, with obvious comparisons between institutionalized racism and how that eats at the spirit of even those with, as you said, good intentions. And I also thought of A Thousand Splendid Suns and its themes of oppression — how the first wife (the wives were essentially slaves) at first resented the second wife but eventually came to identify with her and to correctly identify the real source of their oppression. Also, her inability to read and write reminded me of the slavemasters' attempt to keep their "property" ignorant.
That's interesting. I thought about "Maus" a few times, too. I didn't make the connection to "Suns," but that makes perfect sense.
Great point about the narrator of "Middlesex." That truly is what drives that story and makes it so personal. "The Known World" is definitely lacking that central point of view.
Central point of view is a good way to put that.
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