Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook192 pages2 hours
Kind One: A Novel
By Laird Hunt
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
A “profoundly imaginative, strikingly original, deeply moving” antebellum tale of two slave girls who take their white mistress into captivity (Kirkus Reviews).
In “a novel that upends what we expect from slavery narratives,” teenage Ginny marries Linus Lancaster, her mother’s second cousin, and moves to his Kentucky pig farm ninety miles from nowhere (Roxane Gay). In the shadows of the lush Kentucky landscape, Ginny discovers the empty promises of Lancaster’s paradise—a place where the charms of her husband fall away to reveal a troubled man and cruel slave owner. Ginny befriends the young slaves Cleome and Zinnia who work at the farm—until Lancaster’s attentions turn to them, and she finds herself torn between her husband and her only companions. The events that follow Lancaster’s death change all three women for life.
Haunting, chilling, and suspenseful, Kind One is a powerful tale of redemption and human endurance in antebellum America, “as devastating a piece of writing as anything one is likely to find in contemporary literature” (Contemporary Review of Fiction).
“This compact but reverberant 19th-century tale tracks a circle of hard-luck souls whose collective tears could fill a dry well. . . . Hunt passes the narration among the principle characters in woozily nonlinear fashion, lending a range of textures to this antebellum melodrama.” —New York Times Book Review
“Opening with a prologue in the form of an extraordinarily beautiful meditation on loss, Hunt’s writing deepens into allegory, symbolism and metaphor, all while spinning forth a dark tale of abuse, incest, and corruption reminiscent of Faulkner.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“An unforgettable tale of the savagery of antebellum America. . . . Hunt deftly maintains an unsettling tone and a compelling narrative that will linger with readers long after the last page.” —Publishers Weekly
In “a novel that upends what we expect from slavery narratives,” teenage Ginny marries Linus Lancaster, her mother’s second cousin, and moves to his Kentucky pig farm ninety miles from nowhere (Roxane Gay). In the shadows of the lush Kentucky landscape, Ginny discovers the empty promises of Lancaster’s paradise—a place where the charms of her husband fall away to reveal a troubled man and cruel slave owner. Ginny befriends the young slaves Cleome and Zinnia who work at the farm—until Lancaster’s attentions turn to them, and she finds herself torn between her husband and her only companions. The events that follow Lancaster’s death change all three women for life.
Haunting, chilling, and suspenseful, Kind One is a powerful tale of redemption and human endurance in antebellum America, “as devastating a piece of writing as anything one is likely to find in contemporary literature” (Contemporary Review of Fiction).
“This compact but reverberant 19th-century tale tracks a circle of hard-luck souls whose collective tears could fill a dry well. . . . Hunt passes the narration among the principle characters in woozily nonlinear fashion, lending a range of textures to this antebellum melodrama.” —New York Times Book Review
“Opening with a prologue in the form of an extraordinarily beautiful meditation on loss, Hunt’s writing deepens into allegory, symbolism and metaphor, all while spinning forth a dark tale of abuse, incest, and corruption reminiscent of Faulkner.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“An unforgettable tale of the savagery of antebellum America. . . . Hunt deftly maintains an unsettling tone and a compelling narrative that will linger with readers long after the last page.” —Publishers Weekly
Unavailable
Author
Laird Hunt
Laird Hunt's most recent novel, Zorrie, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Hunt has been a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and won the Anisfield-Wolf Award for Fiction, the Grand Prix de Littérature Américaine, and Italy's Bridge Award. He teaches in the Department of Literary Arts at Brown University and lives in Providence.
Read more from Laird Hunt
Zorrie Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kind One: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Indiana, Indiana Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Impossibly: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Exquisite: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This Wide Terraqueous World Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOffice at Night Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Once into the Night Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Kind One
Related ebooks
Mulberry: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Provenance: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHalf-Blood Blues: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Before I Forget: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Citizens Creek: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Exile Blues: A Novel Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFreeman: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Daniel: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God's Will and Other Lies: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFlight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Grant Park: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Smokey Dalton Boxed Set: Books 1-3: Smokey Dalton Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDavid Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Snake Walkers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5October Suite: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Dirt Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Pao: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Gloria: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lilly’S Journey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSugar Money: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sarah Phillips Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Comedy: American Style Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Last Road Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Rattlebone Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Angry Ones: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Sacred Place: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Hidden Hills Saga: Book I: Ice Whispers Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll Different Kinds Of Free Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5There Is Confusion Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5
Historical African American Fiction For You
Yellow Wife: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Love Songs of W.E.B. Du Bois: An Oprah's Book Club Pick Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve Years a Slave (Illustrated) (Two Pence books) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Kindred: A Graphic Novel Adaptation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The House of Eve Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color Purple Collection: The Color Purple, The Temple of My Familiar, and Possessing the Secret of Joy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Wild Women and the Blues: A Fascinating and Innovative Novel of Historical Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Dry Grass of August: A Moving Southern Coming of Age Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jubilee Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Twelve Years a Slave: Narrative of Solomon Northup (AD Classic) (Illustrated) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Yonder: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Lovecraft Country: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Color Purple Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meridian Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Confessions of Nat Turner: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Perfect Peace: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Reformatory: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Third Life of Grange Copeland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Salt Roads Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Another Brooklyn: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bailey's Cafe: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sassafrass, Cypress & Indigo: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Long Division: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gilda Stories: Expanded 25th Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Coffee Will Make You Black: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Let Us Descend: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Literature Help: The Watsons Go to Birmingham 1963 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSisters in Arms: A Novel of the Daring Black Women Who Served During World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Kind One
Rating: 3.710526315789474 out of 5 stars
3.5/5
19 ratings3 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Laird Hunt explores themes of race and slavery, its consequences of abuse and violence, as well as questions of sexuality and incest. The novel tells these cogent tales with beautiful, dark imagery, fully rounded characters, compelling action, and vivid descriptions. All this in two hundred pages. This deeply provocative work probes these issues sometimes through allegory and symbolism and sometimes explicitly, or it could be said, through good-old-fashioned storytelling. The narrative jumps around in time, and at first this felt confusing, but then fell into place as the story filled in. Most of the narrative is told from the point of view of Ginny, but Hunt bookends these ten chapters with short pieces from the perspective of other characters, all told in an immediate first-person voice. The overall effect lingers and haunts. This story seems to represent not just the lives of the few people portrayed, but a larger underbelly of America in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Powerful enough to feel instantly like a timeless classic, this book deserves a thorough investigation. As page-turning as it is difficult, Kind One is a pleasure to read.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The kind of 4 star you give when it's pretty great but you love other books by the same author even more. That said this'll linger in my brain a good long while.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Something like...3.5 maybe. Very different writing technique, and unlike anything I've read. That however caused some confusion in understanding just what was going on. Dream sequences were odd, and a bit much, very fanciful and obscure.
I'd read Hunt's NEVERHOME, and really liked it. In this book, a young woman becomes the wife of her mother's second cousin, on a pig farm in Kentucky where she finds the promises of a big manor home far from reality and where the two servant girls eventually take her into captivity. But all of this is only eventually understood through varying and different accounts.
You might want to take a peek preview before you decide to read. I liked it. I didn't love it.