The professor fathers a son to serve as his experimental subject and observes him from afar. Sometimes he simply collects data, while at other times he tries to influence his son’s choices, by encouraging him, for instance, to participate in swimming rather than “the fraught cliché of basketball.” His goal is to “ prove [his son] was so strikingly decent and true that America could not find fault in him unless we as a nation had projected it there.” When the young man nears the end of college, the professor convinces himself that his son has “made it out past an invisible trip wire, out to some safe and boundless future.” Predictably, his hope doesn’t come to pass—instead, the young man becomes the victim of police brutality. Each story in My Monticello along with the novella take place in the state of Virginia. How is Virginia a character in this book? Fitzgerald, Isaac (September 28, 2021). "It's Never Too Late to Publish a Debut Book and Score a Netflix Deal". The New York Times . Retrieved October 30, 2021. Scott Shane's outstanding work Flee North tells the little-known tale of an unlikely partnership ... Author Johnson’s imagination takes off from the day in 2017 when a young woman was killed by a white supremacist who intentionally drove his car into a group of protestors in Charlottesville. She layers on top of that electrical outages resulting from violent storms triggered by climate change. And in the midst of this chaos, the white supremacists take to the streets, terrorizing persons of color and others without economic means. A group of these persons escapes from the horrific conditions of the neighborhood, eventually settling at Monticello.

MY MONTICELLO | Kirkus Reviews MY MONTICELLO | Kirkus Reviews

I found the third story, Something Sweet on Our Tongues, to be a little too emotionally distant and reserved. While I still enjoyed it, the narrative is told in a first-person plural ("we") and this kept pushing me away from getting at the crux of the story or from understanding the main characters with the idea of we in mind. Fuelled by adrenaline, Da’Naisha seems to have driven them there by chance, but she has a special relationship with Monticello; she’s a descendent of Sally Hemings, the enslaved woman who bore a number of Jefferson’s children. One of her neighbours teases her about the connection: “So y’all are like hood royalty or something”? Da’Naisha notes the irony that the plantation, previously overseen by a man who considered slavery a “moral depravity” yet owned 600 enslaved people, is their one hope of salvation.The My Monticello audiobook is narrated by Aja Naomi King, January LaVoy, Landon Woodson, LeVar Burton, Ngozi Anyanwu, and Tomiwa Edun.

My Monticello: THE most powerful read of summer 2022

Strand, Karla (2021-10-01). "October 2021 Reads for the Rest of Us - Ms. Magazine". Ms. Magazine . Retrieved 2021-10-16.Having given you my opinion, I DO want you to know that the likes of Roxanne Gay, Colson Whitehead and Charles Yu have praised this book to the skies. So don't listen to me; see for yourself. Ron Rash is renowned for his writing about Appalachia, but his latest book, The Caretaker, begins ... Lillian Smith Book Awards Recognize Short Story Collection, Nonfiction Book for Furthering Social Justice | UGA Libraries". www.libs.uga.edu . Retrieved 2022-06-06.

My Monticello: Fiction: Johnson, Jocelyn Nicole My Monticello: Fiction: Johnson, Jocelyn Nicole

Guernica: Tell us about the origin of “My Monticello,” the titular story in your collection. What were the seeds, and how did it bloom in the way that it did? Library of Virginia Annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards". www.lva.virginia.gov . Retrieved 2022-08-22. The book is interested in how people react when the systems of society break down – by drawing together or pulling apart… I remember looking out at all those people, most of whom I'd seen or known over months or years—several of whom I loved. Everybody was yelling or cowering or sneering, angry or afraid.”

Egelman, Sarah Rachel (October 5, 2021). "My Monticello: Fiction". Book Reporter . Retrieved 2021-10-16. Guernica: Can you talk more about Da’Naisha Love? How and why is it that she’s the one to lead this group in this moment, and to this place, Monticello? The biggest challenge was thinking about the psychological and emotional costs of racism and extremism. It meant putting myself in the same mental space as my characters, being isolated and run out of home. That was hard to contemplate for characters that I grew to really like and care about. The night before the rally, groups of armed men started to turn up Virginia is Not Your Home, the second story, was also a showcase. Not quite as compelling as the first, but that was more in line with the nature of the story itself. The style here is sort of an unfurling of a tale . . . the second-person narration is clipped and feels well up above the story, but once I was able to settle into the rhythm, the delivery was smooth with a wonderful, understated ache. Jocelyn Nicole Johnson's book is an important work and easily the best thing I have read this year. Each story is completely different in style, yet all solidly land their message. This is her first published book and it certainly holds a great promise for the future. Five stars.