WL's Mainstream Gay Book Reviews - 57. The Prophets by Robert Jones Jr. (Historical Fiction/African American Experience)

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/52576333-the-prophets

I intended to read this book early in January, then publish the review on Martin Luther King Day as a tribute piece for black history month in the US. What I found while reading it and re-reading it has made me ponder restlessly whether I should offer an opinion at all on this novel. My words cannot do this historical fiction novel justice, nor will they offer scorn as its detractors would desire. It’s worth noting that LGBT literature and African American historical fiction rarely ever mix. Last year, I explored James Baldwin, a notable gay African American author, when I reviewed Giovanni’s Room, which had titular unsympathetic white gay male protagonists. I also noted it was disjointed and lacked empathy for its main characters. As a black writer with brilliant works on race relations for the US and abroad, he separated his experiences as a black man and a gay man because his African American readership was unlikely to accept his homosexuality, while his closeted homosexual readers would not be able to relate to his African American experience back in the 1950s. Fast forward to 2021, author Robert Jones Jr. has written a novel, The Prophets, which answered the very issues I thought Baldwin bifurcated in his novels. Robert Jones Jr. has been nicknamed the “Son of Baldwin” and I would say he deserves the title as Baldwin’s successor in African American and LGBT fiction. If his first novel is any indication of his skills, Robert Jones Jr. could be an inspiring literary spirit of the 21^st century for these genres. The Prophets was nominated as a finalist in the National Book award in 2021 and has been named “Best Book of the Year” by NPR, New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, and so many others. I had to read this novel with such an amazing avalanche of praise and it truly is a great novel; perhaps the best novel that incorporates the African American Experience and LGBT issues written thus far in the 21^st century.

Length-wise: It is 400 pages long and 14 hours and 52 minutes on Audible. This book is an exhausting read in terms of length, subject matter with candid reference to rape by both men and women, and some unsettling concepts. The closest comparison I can offer is to consider this book as a historical epic akin to Mary Renault’s classics. This is not fluff, despite its tagline about the gay romance between two black slaves in the pre-Civil War American Deep South, it is best to describe this story as an ensemble cast experience that surrounds these two gay black lovers, filled with characters ranging from lesbian and transgender black characters to black Christian religious converts/enablers, along with white characters with a complex array of emotional compromise and acceptance.

Plot: The book is a series of scattered perspectives ranging from the distant past in Sub-Saharan Africa when the ancestors of the two titular gay characters first encountered Portuguese Christian missionaries to the early 19^th century, where the majority of events take place in Vicksburg, Mississippi at Elizabeth Plantation. The story’s various perspectives are written similar to verses in the Christian Bible, which I assume based on the subject matter was done on purpose to show diametrically opposing truths with belief and reality. (In trying to organize this, I shall attempt to structure the plot chronologically.)

In the past, we are offered observations from various perspectives from the female King of an African tribe, whose people had different notions in terms of gender roles and sexual norms to the Western white European civilization that encountered them, including an ancient form of gay marriage that Christian Europeans found offensive. From the first encounter with white European Christian missionaries to battles with armed slavers, the tragic beginning of slavery from Africa is described, sporadically throughout the story. We are shown the perspective of the desperate final struggles from this tribe in the past to fight gun-wielding and armored European slavers. In the wake of the tribe’s defeat, the gay couple mentioned at the first encounter is subjected to the infamous “Middle Passage”, where enslaved Africans were put in the hulls of cargo vessels for weeks with very little food and water to be sold in the Americas. Many, including the gay couple, died during this voyage, either through mistreatment or voluntary suicide. Several generations later, the story shifts to a plantation in the newly formed United States, where a cart, filled with purchased slaves from another slaveowner, arrived. Among the newly purchased slaves was a young boy, who was named by his master as Isaiah. Isaiah is befriended by another young slave boy named by his master as Samuel. Neither of these names was their true names, but we learn it is merely one in a litany of revisions by masters to make the world “conform” to their belief system and state of being. Even under the harsh environment of the plantation, where beatings, rape by both white men and white women, and death were ever-present realities without reason, except the self-deceiving ones concocted for moral supremacy based on notions of destiny and ownership, the boys found love in each other.

As the story progresses, the boys’ relationship is challenged by someone among the slaves. Amos, a fellow black slave, was elevated by Paul, the owner of the plantation, through the teachings of the Bible to be a missionary to the slaves. Amos believed only through compromise and accepting subservience to their master’s religion could they be viewed more favorably, while Paul believed that through Christian teachings, he could elevate his slaves to understand their place. As Christianity opposed homosexual relationships and sodomy, Amos uses his sway with the other converted Christian slaves to alienate and isolate Isaiah and Samuel from the other slaves until they accept their position and duty to their master, including being forced to breed with other female slaves to produce offspring to be sold into slavery for profit. The boys resist Amos and Paul’s attempts to change them, but the drive for obedience through the means of religion reaches a breaking point. The story has a tragic ending created by blind rage, passion, and a yearning for freedom that sadly was still decades away.

Review: First, I should tell readers that I debated on whether I should publish this review or not. I honestly love this novel and anyone, who wants to know how brutal the sins of historical American history could be, should give this book a chance. However, on the other hand, it is a difficult book to read. It is written non-sequitur, so you have to focus on the various details to get a grasp of the narrative. The subject matter is very dark and it is perhaps something not even the most seasoned readers of bleak genre narratives will respond favorably to. Yet, I cannot deny that this book is perhaps one of the best books I have ever read that highlights the struggles of LGBT African Americans, both in the past and in the present through social commentary.

In terms of characters, Isaiah and Samuel stood out as sympathetic star-crossed lovers, they were both born in an era and place, where being black meant you were property and not a person. Being homosexual meant you were morally compromised and you were not someone that society could accept. Yet, despite the fact no one understood their needs as individuals, they thrived. This was possible, because they never viewed each other as property, nor did they require others to accept them. Isaiah viewed the world in terms of the logical and rational needs of himself and his partner, but he would not yield basic human principles such as his independence. However, Isaiah was by nature a peaceful person, who tried to find clever ways to rebel but resisted the call to anger or violence to reach his ends. On the other hand, Samuel viewed the world with a bit of anger with a deep-seated view that he must protect his partner and his brief moment of independence by force if needed. Both Samuel and Isaiah would be confronted by an issue born from their reluctance to accept submission to their master’s desire to breed them like farm animals.

Among fellow slaves, who strive for wider acceptance by submitting to their master’s Christian religion, Isaiah and Samuel were taunted and even physically harmed for their behavior. In a way, their love and their trials parallel the struggles of many modern LGBT black males and females, who cannot receive acceptance by their communities due to their strangeness and inability to conform to the expectations of wider society. It’s an interesting concept that is explored with a unique social commentary because the author appears to be arguing clearly that the “social conformity” that is being pushed on the modern black community is a descendant of the same concepts used to control black slaves.

I think Robert Jones Jr. wanted to draw attention towards a bigger issue. He wanted to show attitudes concerning social norms and ugly issues on alienation for those who do not fit, even if they belong to the same background as yourself. Whether it is sexuality with Isaiah and Samuel, native religious practitioners with characters like Maggie, or gender role non-conforming females like Sarah, the black slaves of Elizabeth Plantation grew more distant from those who share in their suffering, while trying to accept conformity to Paul’s view on them.

Among the female protagonists, I think Maggie is the breakout star of this narrative as she is a strong woman of her beliefs, despite everything that has gone wrong in her life. Her faith in the native African religious rituals and being an early practitioner of what we call Voodoo today was a great foil to Amos’ compromised acceptance of European Christianity. Beyond the angle of faith and identity, she nursed bitterness towards those she served, she would make minor rebellions against them by poisoning their food, stealing morsels for those like Isaiah and Samuel, and being a natural healer. Yet, she also shows some level of compassion towards Ruth, Paul’s wife, who had treated her well. However, her compassion did not extend to Ruth’s offspring, who Maggie poisons to death by tainting her breast milk, leaving only one boy, Timothy, to survive.

Of the villains, Amos is in my view the Judas of the novel, a traitor to his people and his traditions for little more than a bitter hope to keep a woman, Essie, he loves away from Paul and other white masters with a vague belief that with Christianity installed as a common faith then he could claim Essie as his wife. However, he is naïve and lacks understanding of the minutia revealed in the book. Christian faith may portend to have rules, but its enforcement is subjective at best, including concepts like adultery. He knows his bargain was unenforceable and likely futile, but it provided at least a hope for something better than nothing. He sees the conversion of his people to Christianity and acceptance to eternal subjugation with body and mind to be worth it. By asking and trying to force Isaiah and Samuel into submission, Amos failed to see the bitter reality that was obvious. By forcing these two men to breed for their master’s profits, Amos was helping to turn the black slaves of Elizabeth plantation into nothing more than the beasts like horses, cattle, or pigs that he had hoped Christian conversion would demonstrate they weren’t.

In Amos, Robert Jones Jr. made a major critique of Christianity, especially the Black Community’s reliance on Christian leaders, who are beholden to higher authorities, who wished to use these religious leaders to control their people and accept subjugation. It’s a very dangerous notion that Robert Jones Jr. is arguing, he’s positing that Christian leadership is forcing conformity and harming African American people’s ability to have freedom. Essentially, the cornerstone of what made Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights movement is being challenged and criticized as the very reasons why black community inequality issues remain major social problems in the United States.

Interesting point on the oppression that Amos attempts to smooth away, this book highlighted things that reflect items in our post- “George Floyd” era social consciousness, where passages were dedicated to the arbitrary suffering of black slaves could easily be transcribed to modern-day African American culture. Things like being beaten for no reason, having a white master’s foot against your throat, and even being brutally murdered for suspicion alone are sadly not relegated to the pre-US Civil War 19^th century.

The other villain in this book would be Paul, the master of Elizabeth Plantation, named after his dead mother. According to the book, he is one of the wealthiest men in their area of Mississippi. He is an intelligent man, but he is unwilling to accept blame for the misery of the black slaves or even his poor white overseers, who live in shanty wooden shacks on his property because he viewed all these things as necessities to continue his success and legacy. Paul connects his success to his personal ability and his faith in the Christian God, which he uses as the basis of several things, including his desire to use his slaves as items bestowed on him by God. He has raped several black female slaves in the past and fathered several children, including his coach driver, Adam. Paul is a man, who deceives himself into believing his wealth and power over his plantation made all his actions correct. His internal monologue is ubiquitous with an early 19^th century American, the same ideals of faith and destiny were major concerns to him, along with the drive for expansion and power over others. People like Paul contributed to the growth of the US from frontier wars with England and Spain to the eventual decimation of the Native American peoples. Paul is Robert Jones Jr.’s extrapolation of an affluent 19^th century white American, a man driven by ambition, pride, and a false belief in “destiny”. Eventually, such false beliefs in self-worth and “destiny”, none of these things can last. Paul’s drive to seek more and to bend the will of other lesser beings to hid desires would destroy him and his family.

While many of those things that Paul believed in are no longer relevant, the core reasons for his beliefs and his nature have not changed in the American mental landscape. The concept of American Exceptionalism was born in the 19^th century by men like Paul, who had been the generation that won a nation, conquered various powerful groups, and created a vast commercial empire. The modern American may not want to look at ourselves through the same lens as such a repugnant man but has the current generation not won a powerful nation by defeating various competing foes and the commercial empires from Amazon, Apple, Tesla, and Google alone are equivalent to several nations. The ugly truth about Paul is that modern American Civilization runs the same risks as him by trying to bend people to a set path.

There are many minor villains and heroes in this story. Some are mirror images of one another. Essie is one of the black women that Paul raped with a resulting half-white/black child and Amos’ beloved. Ruth is Paul’s wife, who attempted to rape Samuel with Isaiah watching her as she wanted to enjoy her slaves just as her husband has, but she is mostly barren so there’s little chance of children. These women are remarkable characters with their perspectives and views on life from both sides, like a mirror image.

Other characters are complex gray characters, villains with differing moral perspectives. James is a white English orphan from London, who came to Elizabeth Plantation to seek a job from Paul. Despite being Paul’s cousin, he is treated in some ways no better than a paid slave, living in a wooden shack with barely any money for himself. Paul does not share his wealth with his relative without regret. Due to his life, James can understand a black slave’s condition, but he is stubbornly resisting humanizing them because he does not want to probe what he is doing or his life. At times James questions why Blacks don’t try to better themselves as he had, arguing a classic 19th-century British ideal, despite knowing such a thing was impossible.

Another gray character is Timothy, Paul’s son, who is a returning college student with a love of art. Timothy is softer than his father and mother, preferring to use certain more “progressive” terms like Negro rather than the derogatory N-word. Additionally, Timothy is revealed to be gay and has his passions, which is why he takes Isaiah to bed. However, despite his more progressive views, Timothy does not understand the suffering of the slaves, nor does he understand that what he is doing to Isaiah and Samuel later was rape similar to his mother’s actions. Timothy in some ways is someone I can pity, a gay man trying to understand himself by exploring with others, but he fails in the critical area of recognizing that Isaiah and Samuel were human beings just like him.

I know this review has gone on very long and I have not mentioned the most sensitive topic, Racism. Yes, this novel has very racist views and points to an ugly society that viewed black people as nothing more than animals or object to be used. The N-word is used constantly by white narrative perspectives and the ideas expressed by characters like Paul are things that demean black people. Yes, there is a lot of racist views and rhetoric in this book.

One of the most interesting points made by Robert Jones Jr. during the book is on the subject of 19th-century social commentators, who claim black people were always lazy as the reason for their lack of ingenuity. He argues that black people aren’t able to excel with their minds due to the burden of work placed on them like slaves. When you must work 18-hour days with very little food or water, you grow tired and your productivity declines. It’s a believable counter-argument to the racist revisionist historians when human beings must struggle constantly to survive rather than have free time to think, your mind would drift towards rest.

On the other side, bias went in both directions. Robert Jones Jr. portrayed the African ancestors of American black slaves in a benign light, the peaceful tribe of Africa had socially progressive rituals and gender roles for instance to draw a deeper reverse image with European white civilization. However, historically speaking, Africa had slavery and bigoted views as well, even before the presence of white missionaries, slavers, and colonial powers. Ghana and Mali were traditionally ancient African states with rich histories of less progressive views before encounters with Europe. I don’t deny that there were tribes that had different views of gender roles or even same-sex marriage customs, but Africa wasn’t as pink-colored as Robert Jones Jr. portrayed.

Beyond the bias, the story is very difficult to follow in a logical framework. It utilizes parallels with historical anecdotes and non-relevant facts about the past to draw attention to major points. While I understand it is his style and I enjoyed some of it; ultimately, I felt it dragged a bit of the story. The narrator shifts made the story richer, but there needed to be more transition between chapters, especially with ones involving the past. I think Robert Jones Jr. will improve this aspect as he continues to write and improve his style.

Review: 4.00 out of 5.00, it is worth reading if you are interested in the subject or want to challenge yourself to read a book with very complex issues regarding racial, gender, and sexual issues in an American historical context.