A love so pure it shines is unusual enough, but for such a love to exist in the confines of a cotton plantation seems beyond the realm of possible. When that love does exist, and is between two young men, it takes a writer as gifted as Robert Jones Jr. in The Prophets to bring its inspiration to glorious life.
Samuel and Isiah have been raised to take care of the big livestock on a plantation so heartless it is called Empty. They have come of age falling in love, and becoming lovers has only strengthened their bond in work and beyond.
Their fellow enslaved know of their bond. Most are live and let live, until one of them becomes a preacher, taught by their white master, and decides they need to pay for their sins or everyone will suffer. That this would-be preacher is spurred by hurt over his own domestic situation, and is far from pure himself, is but one layer to the story of how the lives at Empty are intertwined.
The Prophets lets the reader get to know both Samuel and Zay as deeply realized characters. The same is true for so many others, and parts of the novel carry the narrative forward, backward, into interior places and over a sweeping scope of other places and times. These voices and characters all stand out as their own true selves.
And it's not just characters at Empty whose voices we hear. There are warriors and royalty of old whose wonderful lives and tragedies are chronicled as people were enslaved and taken halfway across the world. That the three strongest characters are echoed in the main narrative of the novel reinforces the tragedy of what is to come.
The novel also gives voice to the prophets themselves -- the spirits that have been the sorrow and the promise, who tried in their oblique ways to inform, and who bear witness. The spiritual aspect of The Prophets is used to great effect in building toward not only the end of this story, but also its meaning beyond.
Jones writes with an assured, strong grasp of poetry in the various strands of the novel. It is a book that I had to pause reading often not because if confusion but because of the wish to stop and reflect. There is a lot of life and love in this book. The stories are concerned with gender, race, one's place in the world and identity in ways great and small. This is a sweeping epic that is stunning.
The author pays tribute to two of his most beloved mentors, James Baldwin (Jones's website is Son of Baldwin) and Toni Morrison, in style and the way his narrative is crafted. This book is so strong that it makes me want to go back and spend more time with both of those authors as well.