Review - The Prophets by Robert Jones, Jr.

Title: The Prophets *

Author: Robert Jones, Jr.

Rating: 5 stars / 5 stars

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Favorite Quote: “But to be in one’s natural state, save the mosquitoes, wasn’t the kind of humiliation toubab imagined it should be. The skin caught every breeze along with every light. Privates were free. And the fog kissed you, left a moisture for your skin to drink, every bit as holy as any baptism, perhaps purer because it was voluntary and never purported to be salvation.” Jones Jr., Robert. The Prophets. G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2021.

Review: The Prophets was another of my favorite books from 2021 and is one that I want to read again. It’s not an easy or a comfortable read, but it is an important one, and it has stuck with me.

The Prophets follows a number of enslaved people (and slaveholders) on a plantation known as The Empty. Although there are many perspectives explored throughout the novel, the protagonists are Isaiah and Samuel, two enslaved young men (children, really), who seek solace in one another’s love and affection. As Christianity takes hold, they become scapegoats, and ultimately, a violent altercation occurs, leading to many deaths, both of enslaved people and of the toubob (a term used to describe the white people in the book).

I don’t even know where to start in my review of this book, because there is so much to discuss. If The Prophets is what Robert Jones, Jr. can accomplish in his debut novel, I cannot wait to see what he will achieve going forward. This novel spans time, spans continents, and spans worldviews. And it does so with devastating, descriptive prose that captures anguish and love, fear and indescribable bravery.

Let’s start, I suppose, with the language (seriously, when do I not?). This is Robert Jones, Jr.’s debut novel, but it doesn’t fall into any of the traps set for unsuspecting debut novelists. His prose is neither too short and choppy, nor too long and arduous. He balances lyrical descriptions and captivating metaphors with fast paced action. He’s officially been added to my list of insta-read authors, because he sure can craft a sentence - a chapter - and a whole novel.

The exploration of gender dynamics in this novel is another aspect that I found absolutely fascinating. This was certainly at play, at least a little bit, in the portions of the novel that take place in and around The Empty, but it is front and center in the portions of the narrative that take place in Africa, with a female king. She is a strong, powerful leader and there is no question of her authority based on her gender. She is simply the king, and therefore the leader. Her power stems from the respect of the community she governs, which is in stark contrast to the power wielded by the toubob women at The Empty whose power stems from manipulation and harnessing stereotypes of Black, male hypersexuality to use for their own benefit - lording power over the enslaved persons of The Empty.

The allusions to Christianity that are woven throughout this novel are another of its strengths. While I explore this a bit more below with my analysis of the above quote, I think it is important to note here the contrast between the white Christian ideology that begins to take hold and triggers violence, anger, and suspicion against the novel’s protagonists, and the folk remedies and rituals that actually bring healing and comfort throughout the novel.

About that Quote: There are three aspects of this quote that really emphasized it when I first read The Prophets. The first is that, much like other aspects of the book, especially the parts set in Africa, this quote others the actions of the white (toubab) people, rather than othering the perspective of the Black, enslaved folks. This is in line with one of the triumphs of the book, which is to force readers, some of whom might otherwise naturally adopt a white-centric or colonizer-centric mindset, to recognize the devastation and violence caused by white colonists in communities that were already rich in culture and functioning without the presence of European or American influence.

Second, this quote demonstrates the strength of the prose found in this novel. [L]eft a moisture for your skin to drink…the use of metaphor here, and throughout the novel, is absolutely brilliant.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this quote captures a central aspect of the novel and distills it into one captivating sentence. And the fog kissed you, left a moisture for your skin to drink, every bit as holy as any baptism, perhaps purer because it was voluntary and never purported to be salvation. This whole novel acts as a condemnation of the violence inspired by Christianity - both passive and active. And here, Jones Jr. describes nature as a purer version of a Christian sacrament - all of the promise of a religious experience, without any of the coercion or the trauma.

TW for The Prophets: violence, character death, SA, slavery, racism

Have you read The Prophets? Share your thoughts below!