![]() ![]() “It jumped from one face to the next, like lanterns being lit in quick succession. A third of the way through, Jones gives readers reasons to keep turning the page. ![]() The novel, with its biblical gravitas (most chapter titles and character names stem from this source), gets off to a slow start, but it does have its intrigues. Over time the two foster what others in the community eventually call an “unnatural closeness,” and their resolution to stay true to themselves sets the narrative in motion. Samuel gives him water, becoming his first friend. The pair meet as adolescents when Isaiah is brought to the plantation informally referred to as Empty by those enslaved on its grounds. In this story set on Halifax plantation in Mississippi, not far from the Yazoo River, the pair are intermediaries for another supernatural source: African ancestors whose knowledge did not survive middle passage.Īt the center of the story is Samuel, who takes every moment to contemplate freedom and rebellion, and Isaiah, who believes that maybe this something-like-love is enough for the moment. In Robert Jones Jr.’s bewitching literary debut “The Prophets,” these names take on a new significance. ![]() In the Bible, Isaiah and Samuel are prophets, men considered to be proclaimers of the will of God. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |