(Reviewed by JD Jung)
#CommissionsEarned
“My whole life, it seems, there’s been a revival of hatred and violence toward people who look like me. Waves of men have surged into our town from all over the state, the country.”
This is Charlottesville, VA in the somewhat near future. After severe thunderstorms rip out the electrical power grid, a violent white mob attacks a racially mixed neighborhood, forcing them to flee to safety.
But will they ever be safe? This is the premise of the title novella in My Monticello, a collection of five stories and one novella. In this powerful cautionary tale, Da’Naisha Hemings Love and her grandmother, who are descendants of Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemings, flee with their neighbors and take refuge at Monticello. But where does this ancestry get them? While they all must work together to fight for survival, Da’Naisha has her own secrets and personal issues that must be dealt with.
Each story explores societal issues such as race, gender, and culture in a very personal manner. Ginny tries to define herself and live her life according to her wishes instead of that of her parents and society in “Virginia Is Not Your Home”. Can her anger and frustration be turned into positive change in order for her to start over?
In “Control Negro” a university professor fathers a son to a married student in order to conduct a study on how much an advantaged black male can achieve in society compared to an average American Caucasian male (ACM). But this study is at what cost to both him and his biological son?
A proud immigrant from Lagos refuses to let the school label his son, while also hiding the truth from his family that he was laid off from his job in “The King of Xandria”.
These stories include many layers and keep you thinking about them way after you finish each one. Debut author Jocelyn Nicole Johnson writes with sharp, yet gorgeous prose in a vulnerable manner. I hope to read more from her in the future.
