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rebekahg876's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
hperks18's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
zamyatins_fears's review against another edition
3.0
I feel like I was too tired to fully focus or appreciate stories with this slow of a pace at the time, so I definitely need to reread.
patrickhackett's review against another edition
4.0
There aren't enough books set in DC that describe the actual city and the people that live in it. This is definitely the best book I've read set in Washington, with a series of beautifully written short stories about African Americans set throughout neighborhoods in DC in the late 20th Century. Jones is a talented writer and paints a captivating picture of people struggling to get by. Definitely very dark (like seriously not a happy story in the bunch), but a worthwhile read.
jbright's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
shammers's review against another edition
4.0
There were 2 stories that I could not focus on/get into. However, the rest of them were fabulous and I love this book!!!
auntie_em's review against another edition
3.0
A collection of short stories about African Americans in the shadow of all the granite buildings and monuments, and the power those structures represent, in the city of Washington, D.C. Ordinary people living ordinary lives, this book is full of compelling stories of people who seemed so real to me I had to keep checking that I was reading fiction. This was a valuable glimpse into lives different from my own, yet somehow the same.
jasonkatz119's review against another edition
4.0
Off the top of my head, enjoyed The Girl Who Raised Pigeons, The Store, An Orange Line train to Ballston, A New Man, A Rich Man.
graywacke's review against another edition
5.0
"...he was left with the ever-increasing vastness of the small apartment..."
Struggling just to get myself sitting and reading and actually blocking out the world a bit, and I picked this up to see if it would help. The collection of stories was the right kind of halfway step. Those ten, twenty, thirty minutes of focus were well rewarded, even if they came here in there, in a spotty way, between long draws on fb and the news and dwelling about where our world is headed—still obsessed.
Jones is special, and one-off personality with a wonderfully one-off take on his stories and their perspectives. You almost don't notice it. Each of these stories take place in Washington, D.C., that other Washington, D.C. Every character is black, each has roots in the south, either by birth or one generation removed, and each has been in D.C. for the majority or the entirety of their lives. The general poverty, limited opportunity, the divide from the white world are all taken for granted, accepted. It's an odd thing how few of these characters rebel, they live and breath this world as if there is no other.
I'm hard pressed to place what it is that makes these stories work. I mean, of course they're interesting and have an odd assortment of characters, orphans, drug dealers, shop owners, suspect parents, convoluted relationship, escape artists of all sorts—getting lost in the city being a goal more than a problem. But, there is something else here that makes these stories work beyond their often terrific opening paragraphs, and despite their anticlimactic and unsatisfying endings. Published in 1992, written, apparently, throughout the 80's, and about characters often from the 1960's, there are a mixture of eras captured in tone, and atmosphere, and none of them our right now. But I enjoyed pretty much every one of these.
Recommended.
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7. Lost in the City : Stories by Edward P. Jones
published: 1992
format: 268 page paperback
acquired: from Borders in 2005
read: Jan 28 - Feb 5
rating: 4½
Struggling just to get myself sitting and reading and actually blocking out the world a bit, and I picked this up to see if it would help. The collection of stories was the right kind of halfway step. Those ten, twenty, thirty minutes of focus were well rewarded, even if they came here in there, in a spotty way, between long draws on fb and the news and dwelling about where our world is headed—still obsessed.
Jones is special, and one-off personality with a wonderfully one-off take on his stories and their perspectives. You almost don't notice it. Each of these stories take place in Washington, D.C., that other Washington, D.C. Every character is black, each has roots in the south, either by birth or one generation removed, and each has been in D.C. for the majority or the entirety of their lives. The general poverty, limited opportunity, the divide from the white world are all taken for granted, accepted. It's an odd thing how few of these characters rebel, they live and breath this world as if there is no other.
I'm hard pressed to place what it is that makes these stories work. I mean, of course they're interesting and have an odd assortment of characters, orphans, drug dealers, shop owners, suspect parents, convoluted relationship, escape artists of all sorts—getting lost in the city being a goal more than a problem. But, there is something else here that makes these stories work beyond their often terrific opening paragraphs, and despite their anticlimactic and unsatisfying endings. Published in 1992, written, apparently, throughout the 80's, and about characters often from the 1960's, there are a mixture of eras captured in tone, and atmosphere, and none of them our right now. But I enjoyed pretty much every one of these.
"About four that afternoon the thunder and lightning began again. The four women seated about Carmona Boone's efficiency apartment grew still and spoke in whispers, when they spoke at all: They were each of them no longer young, and they had all been raised to believe that weather was—aside from answered prayers—the closest thing to the voice of God. And so each in her way listened."
Recommended.
------------------------------------------
7. Lost in the City : Stories by Edward P. Jones
published: 1992
format: 268 page paperback
acquired: from Borders in 2005
read: Jan 28 - Feb 5
rating: 4½
shalms's review against another edition
5.0
Mr. Jones is one of the best writers I have ever had the pleasure of reading. Short stories are not my jam, but this book's stories swept me into times and neighborhoods that I did not know, despite more than two decades of living in D.C. his man is so deft with his characters, so careful with their hearts and souls, and so expert at drawing them for the reader in only a few pages, that I couldn't help fall in to each story as it came. I can't tell you I can explain each story's meaning to you, but I can feel it and will remember many of them for a long time to come.