Mountain: A Novel

Joseph Mountain, a free African American youth adopted and reared in comfortable surroundings by a Philadelphia Quaker couple, confronts a far different world than he has known in this engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable picaresque novel of life on the cusp of the American Revolution. It begins in 1775, when his adopted parents endow Joseph, then a bright but naïve 17, with a grand tour of Europe.
Arriving in London, Joseph swiftly abandons the advice of his parents and plunges into life as a highwayman, whoremonger, sailor and slave trader. His adventures are vividly portrayed in detail by the author, whose fluid style propels and enhances the story as the reader experiences the sounds, smells, sights, pleasures and pains he encounters along the way.
Joseph tells his story in the first person, which gives the tale both authority and immediacy. As it opens, he is standing watch on a ship whose cargo includes 571 African human beings en route to Jamaica where they will be sold into a lifetime of slavery. The fierce irony of his position, as a free African American engaged in the enslavement of African men, women and children, tortures the boy and drives him to keep an unsparingly honest journal.

Joseph Mountain, a free African American youth adopted and reared in comfortable surroundings by a Philadelphia Quaker couple, confronts a far different world than he has known in this engrossing and thoroughly enjoyable picaresque novel of life on the cusp of the American Revolution. It begins in 1775, when his adopted parents endow Joseph, then a bright but naïve 17, with a grand tour of Europe.
Arriving in London, Joseph swiftly abandons the advice of his parents and plunges into life as a highwayman, whoremonger, sailor and slave trader. His adventures are vividly portrayed in detail by the author, whose fluid style propels and enhances the story as the reader experiences the sounds, smells, sights, pleasures and pains he encounters along the way.
Joseph tells his story in the first person, which gives the tale both authority and immediacy. As it opens, he is standing watch on a ship whose cargo includes 571 African human beings en route to Jamaica where they will be sold into a lifetime of slavery. The fierce irony of his position, as a free African American engaged in the enslavement of African men, women and children, tortures the boy and drives him to keep an unsparingly honest journal.

I will admit up front that I have a real interest in history so I guess I have a bias toward the topic. What Mr. Kuncio-Raleigh has done is taken a little known "everyman" and spun a yarn that plays out against arguably the most important and consequential time in American history. Using the few known facts about Joe Mountain, a freed black man,who was raised by a white couple in the Quaker religion to tell not just his story but America's as well.
This novel brings in a variety of themes/issues both big and small. How race and slavery played out during these times and concepts of religion and nationhood but also is rich in details that amplify and personalize everyday life. The writer shows his in depth knowledge of language and everyday life that pulls the reader in the story with the hero so that you have both a sense of place as well as the disorienting whirlwind of revolutionary times. Anyone who likes history will find this book a treasure trove!

I will admit up front that I have a real interest in history so I guess I have a bias toward the topic. What Mr. Kuncio-Raleigh has done is taken a little known "everyman" and spun a yarn that plays out against arguably the most important and consequential time in American history. Using the few known facts about Joe Mountain, a freed black man,who was raised by a white couple in the Quaker religion to tell not just his story but America's as well.
This novel brings in a variety of themes/issues both big and small. How race and slavery played out during these times and concepts of religion and nationhood but also is rich in details that amplify and personalize everyday life. The writer shows his in depth knowledge of language and everyday life that pulls the reader in the story with the hero so that you have both a sense of place as well as the disorienting whirlwind of revolutionary times. Anyone who likes history will find this book a treasure trove!

Dr. Robert Kuncio – Raleigh’s book “Mountain” is a historical novel based upon fact. He embellishes the actual life story written by Robert Mountain, a black man who was born a slave, but raised and freed by the well respected white Miflin family in Philadelphia. The novel is written in the first person and chronicles Mr. Mountain’s life from his beginning in late eighteenth Century Colonial Philadelphia, then to England, the Caribbean, Italy, Spain, Greenland, France and finally back to New York and Connecticut where he meets his fate. Dr. Kuncio – Raleigh vibrantly chronicles what daily life was like at that time in all locales: the city filth, thievery, “blood sports”, whorehouses, life aboard ship; and especially the horrendous conditions African slaves had to endure on ships bound for the Colonies. Mr. Mountain is an educated freed black man who never forgets that he is one step away from being a slave, and it is that fact which seals his ultimate fate. Dr. Kuncio – Raleigh’s dialog is crisply written and is liberally peppered with some unfamiliar words and terminology of that period of time, and the reader will get a great deal more enjoyment from this book if you have a computer or Phone device handy and can look them up. In the author’s “afterward” he directs the reader to sources where you can read Mr. Mountain’s actual life story on which this novel is based. You will definitely want to do this.