My Monticello

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While I wasn’t blown away by My Monticello, I am curious to read this author’s other stories (which were sadly not included in my arc copy) and I would probably still recommend this to other readers.

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson | Waterstones

I was enthralled from the opening lines of this book. These chilling, thought-provoking and expertly crafted stories showcase Johnson's range and ability―they broke my heart as well as my brain. A stunning collection. Guernica: Can you talk more about Da’Naisha Love? How and why is it that she’s the one to lead this group in this moment, and to this place, Monticello? Johnson: Books come out so long after you’ve written them. When I first wrote “My Monticello,” it was maybe a year out from August 12, 2017 and a lot of things hadn’t happened yet. There hadn’t been the storming of the Capitol. This very concerted assault on democracy hadn’t been waged yet. The [2020] election hadn’t yet taken place. I had imagined the novella would be more fantastical than it actually became — even the way that storms and weather have changed in a short time since then seems dramatic, not to mention the global pandemic. In a way, we’ve become closer to some of the predicaments in the story. Stories centered on racism and Virginia, anchored by a dystopian tale set in Thomas Jefferson's home. The title novella that closes Johnson's debut book is stellar and could easily stand on its own...A sharp debut by a writer with wit and confidence.Octavia Butler was revolutionary in taking the tropes of speculative fiction and other genre fiction and using them to think about gender, race and identity in really interesting ways. Reading Beloved by Toni Morrison when I was 16 or 17 and thinking about creating art from parts of American history that were so obscene – that was really influential. Egelman, Sarah Rachel (October 5, 2021). "My Monticello: Fiction". Book Reporter . Retrieved 2021-10-16. What I liked best is the figurative use of Monticello, the house belonging to Jefferson and where he both kept slaves and impregnated one (or more? my knowledge of US history is shaky) whose descendants are at the heart of the book. The disputed nature of American history, who 'owns' Monticello and who are its descendants are where the interests and weight of this lay for me. And wow - that incendiary ending! A] masterly debut collection...The author's riveting storytelling and skill at rendering complex characters yield rich social commentary on Monticello and Jefferson's complex ideologies of freedom, justice, and liberty. This incandescent work speaks not just to the moment, but to history.

review: My Monticello, by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson Book review: My Monticello, by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

Johnson: I’ve been a public school art teacher for many years, so that is my bread and butter: a bunch of people who are different and don’t really want to be in the same room, but are. They live in the same neighborhoods and are forced to create a community. Teachers are tasked with creating the conditions for that community to happen, and the very best teachers do it really, really well. I believe in those public spaces and the opportunities they present; they might be the only time you come together with a bunch of people you don’t necessarily want to be with. So I played with that: Da’Naisha is studying to be a teacher, and I used a lot of the things teachers do to create community. Her way of bringing the group together is this kind of hasty constitution, which is a very first-week thing to do as a public school teacher, generating a list of intentions and what our community is going to do together.Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South. The action here takes place in the near future, a time in which storms have created enough chaos for social breakdown to occur (global warming is hinted at as the cause). And it’s all energy at the outset as we are introduced a significant number of characters. We see the story unfold through the eyes of Da’Naisha a young university student who is a descendent of Jefferson’s (through his relationship with a biracial woman slave called Sally Hemings). But after the drama of opening scene the pace slows significantly until, belatedly, there’s a rapid build-up to a crescendo finish. I found the third story, Something Sweet on Our Tongues, to be a little too emotionally distant and reserved. While I still enjoyed it, the narrative is told in a first-person plural ("we") and this kept pushing me away from getting at the crux of the story or from understanding the main characters with the idea of we in mind.

My Monticello: 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 | TIME My Monticello: 100 Must-Read Books of 2021 | TIME

The other stories are very good, but all the other parts of the book pale in comparison with the My Monticello section. Fitzgerald, Isaac (September 28, 2021). "It's Never Too Late to Publish a Debut Book and Score a Netflix Deal". The New York Times . Retrieved October 30, 2021. The book is interested in how people react when the systems of society break down – by drawing together or pulling apart… It is ultimately this love, if anything, that can sustain the group in the isolation of the mountain, as they are hunted down by the white supremacist militia – and by the legacy of racism which accompanied the stirring idealism of Jefferson.

This is a powerful indictment of present-day America and its racial politics, and Johnson imbues it with passion and fire. All the same, for such a short piece, a long short story or novella, there are places where the pacing falls apart and could do with some editorial tightening. The sort of love triangle feels particularly unsubtle and YA, though it's clear to see where the book wanted to go with it. My Monticello is a suspenseful novella that presents us with a scarily imaginable scenario (given all the alt-right & neo-nazi rallies that have happened in the last couple of years & the Capitol assault) where a group of violent white supremacists engulf Charlottesville. Our narrator, Da'Naisha Love, escapes the violence and finds a momentary refugee in Monticello, which happens to be Thomas Jefferson's historic plantation. Alongside her are strangers, her white boyfriend, her elderly grandmother, and other people from her neighbourhood. Over the course of nineteen days, this cobbled group tries to carry on. Their fear is palpable, and more than once they find themselves faced with possible threats from the outside. Tensions run high and various members within the group inevitably find themselves disagreeing over what to do. Havi