Wow, The First Part Last is an incredible book! I loved this story so much. I haven’t been so emotionally affected by a book in a long time — probably not since The Book Thief or The Time Traveler’s Wife. This title was definitely deserving of the 2004 Michael L. Printz Award, and I will be strongly encouraging my two teenage sons to read and/or listen to it.
Sixteen year old Bobby is raising his daughter Feather alone — well, primarily alone. Feather’s mother and her family aren’t in the picture and his own mother and father are “grandparents, not parents.” Although it is crystal clear that Bobby loves his daughter, he is exhausted and not prepared for what fatherhood entails. He does the best he can, though, and his character is admirable.
I listened to the audio of this book, and it is sooooooo good. The story is narrated by Khalipa Oldjohn, who did an absolutely wonderful job. It’s only on 2 discs and is 1 hour and 42 minutes long, so I strongly encourage you to take up the audio if it’s available at your library.
Highly, highly recommended for those who love young adult literature or who are participating in The Printz Project.
Hillary Jordan has written a very good debut novel that speaks on war, racism, marriage, and living off the land. The story is told by various narrators throughout the book. Henry and Laura are a white married couple who move to the Mississippi delta to raise cotton. Henry loves the land, but Laura misses city life and is deeply unhappy. She also has to live and deal with her racist father-in-law for the first time.
Hap and Florence are a black couple living on Henry’s farm as renters. Hap is a preacher, while Florence is a midwife who also helps Laura with some of her housework. Their oldest child Ronsel is in the military and serving in Germany, and when he comes back, he has to adjust back to a way of life that he is no longer accustomed to. He does find a friend, however, in Jamie, Henry’s younger brother. But, this doesn’t sit well with Henry and Jamie’s father, and trouble ensues.
This book all too painfully illustrates how much African-Americans have had to go through in this country. It does seem like the tide has changed with the historic election of our first black President, Barack Obama. I sincerely hope that this event will be the turning point in race relations in the United States.
(All along while reading this book, I was thinking it was going to receive a 4.5 rating, but then at the end something is stated by Jamie that I was deeply offended by, and I changed my rating to a 4. It didn’t ruin the book for me, but I think a better choice of words should have been uilized to avoid offending some readers.)
The Known World by Edward P. Jones has not only won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but also the NBCC Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
Jones really knows how to write his characters. Each one was very clearly defined. I won’t give away too much of the story here but will write a brief overview.
Henry and Caldonia Townsend are slave owners who are black themselves. Henry’s father had freed himself and his wife, and then later Henry. While Henry was still a slave under William Robbins, he became somewhat of a favorite, and was later instructed by Robbins on how to be a proper slave owner. Henry builds up quite a plantation but then dies unexpectedly. How Caldonia, along with her overseer Moses, runs the plantation afterward forms the rest of the novel.
Several issues are presented in the book. Whites’ attitudes towards blacks, both slave and free; the function of “the law;” men’s attitudes towards women (and vice versa); and the question of how and why blacks could own slaves themselves.
This is a very well-written book, and I struggled on whether to rate it a 4 or 4.5. There is some content in the book that downgrades it slightly for me. Consider it a very high 4.
Wow, The First Part Last is an incredible book! I loved this story so much. I haven’t been so emotionally affected by a book in a long time — probably not since The Book Thief or The Time Traveler’s Wife. This title was definitely deserving of the 2004 Michael L. Printz Award, and I will be strongly encouraging my two teenage sons to read and/or listen to it.
Highly, highly recommended for those who love young adult literature or who are participating in The Printz Project.
Hillary Jordan has written a very good debut novel that speaks on war, racism, marriage, and living off the land. The story is told by various narrators throughout the book. Henry and Laura are a white married couple who move to the Mississippi delta to raise cotton. Henry loves the land, but Laura misses city life and is deeply unhappy. She also has to live and deal with her racist father-in-law for the first time.
The Known World by Edward P. Jones has not only won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, but also the NBCC Award and the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.
