My Monticello

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We all agreed that we would protect one another”, which is indeed a noble sentiment but lacks the rhetorical power of “We hold these truths to be self-evident”. sustained by a cast of characters so unique, sincere, and determined that you will not only root for them, but see your own humanity reflected back. The First Street neighbourhood has a tight, communal spirit: “Older kids keeping an eye on the younger ones,” Da’Naisha observes, “like we were all cousins. Which, as I said above, I did find compelling, however, at heart, I am drawn to character-driven stories, and in this regard, this novella just wasn’t it. There are electricity blackouts and biblical floods, and bigoted “true patriots” with delusional notions of “restoring our legacy” are bent on violence.

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson | Waterstones My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson | Waterstones

It would have benefited either by being more succinct like the short stories or expanding to add more background to the Unraveling. Roxane Gay has already championed the amazing first story in the collection, "Control Negro," but personally I loved "Virginia is Not Your Home" best in the collection. I’m rereading Friday Black by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah, an amazing debut short story collection that talks about consumerism, grief and race.Her short story "Control Negro" was featured in Best American Short Stories 2018, guest-edited by Roxane Gay, and was read live by LeVar Burton as part of PRI's Selected Shorts series. Other things begin to unravel: extreme weather occurrences, unexplained power outages, increased political rage. My thanks to Random House UK, Vintage and NetGalley for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I often think about how a story force like QAnon can make people do things that don’t make sense to me and are harmful — but then there could also be a force that could make people do things that are wonderful and helpful and restorative. The main character, Da'Naisha is a descend of Jefferson and Sally Hemmings, creating an obvious link between their surroundings and her own personal history.

Reviews of My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson - BookBrowse

United by these characters' relentless struggles against reality and fate, My Monticello is a formidable book that bears witness to this country's legacies and announces the arrival of a wildly original new voice in American fiction. Set in the near future, the eponymous novella, "My Monticello," tells of a diverse group of Charlottesville neighbors fleeing violent white supremacists. I started with the title novella - what an inspired idea for a story, great execution, and an ending that made me gasp, then sigh in a very satisfying way. A story of racism that dates as far back to the founding fathers, Thomas Jefferson and his slave, Sally Hemings.

There was widespread horror and outrage as footage of broken bodies bouncing off the car was broadcast around the world. The Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, 2017, is still in living memory in My Monticello. where Thomas Jefferson’s plantation sits and where Johnson was a public-school art teacher for nearly two decades. Born and raised in Virginia, Jocelyn Nicole Johnson was an art teacher for 20 years before she published her debut novella, My Monticello, aged 50.