a gorgeous, devastating collection of stories spotlighting the ways a life, a country, and a planet can tend toward disaster but still be worth fighting for. Da’Naisha is the character who is designed to draw the reader in and this did work, but dialogue is strangely absent for much of the story and when it is present it consists mainly of one-liners and the odd casual comment. Set in the near future as American society is unravelling, it tells the story of a young black student and her neighbours fleeing Charlottesville, Virginia, pursued by violent white supremacists and taking refuge in Monticello, home of US president Thomas Jefferson. After devastating weather has led to power cuts, a white supremacist militia has invaded the neigbourhood of First Street in Charlottesville, Virginia, torching and destroying homes.

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson review - The Guardian

That’s when Charlottesville experienced the deadly Unite the Right rally, where we had a public run-in with a certain type of extremism. She is also hunkering down amidst all this violence with her current boyfriend, grandmother and her ex, which gives rise to multiple issues during the story. Generally speaking the stories within are of an unbalanced nature — you like some, you love one, and you find the others rather middling.Monticello is a Palladian mansion in Charlottesville, Virginia, the primary plantation of Thomas Jefferson who is estimated to have had about 130 slaves there. My Monticello seemed to have the most story to tell and was still the most disinterested of the lot. Overall, Johnson has constructed an arrangement of stories that are rather impactful with a wide range of mood, style, and subject.

My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson | Waterstones

The short stories were definitely stronger and while I loved the idea of the ‘My Monticello’ story, it wasn’t carried off as well as it could have been. I've seen a number of reviews mention that this is a collection of short stories, however my ARC only included the titular story which was more novella in length; as such my review is only of this story. At times, I found some stories to bog down and repeat certain situations, but overall author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson has a great perspective and I will be following her writing career.Lillian Smith Book Awards Recognize Short Story Collection, Nonfiction Book for Furthering Social Justice | UGA Libraries". First of all, what a powerful yet also very poignant debut which not only makes you think but also feel something deep inside. Something Sweet on Our Tongues” is told through first-person-plural narration, “Virginia is Not Your Home” employs the second person, and “The King of Xandria” uses an especially cold impersonal third person.

Jocelyn Nicole Johnson

For me as a Black woman, a Black American, there’s this extra layer of this isn’t yours that gets conveyed both explicitly and implicitly. Her short story “Control Negro” was anthologized in Best American Short Stories, guest edited by Roxane Gay, and read live by LeVar Burton as part of PRI’s Selected Shorts series. It meant putting myself in the same mental space as my characters, being isolated and run out of home. 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.Given this, where would you say your work — and your characters — land on the spectrum of hope and despair? We witness the tension and unravelling of the group caused by their fear, pain and panic and then how they come together as one in a bid for survival. Jocelyn Nicole Johnson occupies a rare, curious gift for mutating a parallel world, one haunted by calamity. Perhaps your mother told you, though she was only privy to my timeworn thesis—never to my aim or full intention.