Reviews

Lost in the City by Edward P. Jones

megangafvert's review

3.0

I still always struggle with short story collections—right when you get into the plot/setting/characters they end. The constant staccato is not my style, but I still enjoyed some of these stories and always love a good set in DC book.

owlishone's review

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

amma_keep_reading's review against another edition

5.0

As in most short story collections, I didn't enjoy all of the stories. However, I did enjoy his writing style in every single story. All of his characters are memorable and that's hard to do. As a DC resident it was fun to picture the various neighborhoods described in the book.

cocoonofbooks's review

4.0

I'm not generally a fan of short stories — I probably wouldn't have picked this up if it hadn't been on my original TBR list I'm working through — but I was able to appropriately set my expectations to appreciate this book for what it was. For the most part, these stories don't contain plot twists or even necessarily much of a plot. They are each a brief window into the life of one or more black Americans living in Washington, D.C., together making up a tapestry showing the diversity of life within a single community. Jones has the ability to make the reader inhabit a character's bones, feeling their feelings and seeing what they see for the snapshot in time that we are with them. Although the characters sometimes make odd or destructive choices, their decisions never feel unrealistic or random because Jones shows us the root circumstances that brought the character to that point. The audiobook rotates through a handful of narrators to give voice to these stories, and listening makes it even easier to feel that you're right there in the scene with the characters. I'm not sure exactly what I'm taking away from this book, but I don't regret the experience of reading it.

stevebargdill's review

4.0

An anthology of short stories by Jones that should be savored and not rushed through in two days!
Every single one is depressing. People are stuck in their lives and can't get out, and don't even really try to get out. Probably, my most two favorite stories in the book are The Store and An Orange Line Train to Ballston. With the latter, I thought at least there would be a happy ending, or at least a conclusion.

Nope. :)

meeners's review

4.0

A few people came and went about her, but the snow now covered the windows of her car and all she could make out were shadows moving about. She could hear voices, but she could not understand any of what people said, as if all sound were being filtered by the snow and turned into garble. She could not anymore read her watch, but she continued to tell herself that in the next minute she would start up the car and go home to Ralph. In the end, it grew cold in the car, and colder still, and at first she did not notice, and then when she did, she thought it was the general condition of the whole world, owing to the snow, and that there was not very much she could do about it.

kawai's review

2.0

I was strangely unmoved by this collection, despite the fact that it covers one of the most underrepresented groups in literature: namely, the African-American population of Washington, DC. As a current resident of that city, it's a rare experience to be able to read about a world that used to exist, which I tread on now in an admittedly (and sadly) post-gentrified time.

And while it made the stories more visceral and real to have them set right outside my door (or in other neighborhoods I used to haunt), there wasn't much else here I found particularly compelling. Jones' stories tended towards the modern, realist, minimalist style of much of contemporary literature: The sort of work we see from Alice Munro and other New Yorker regulars. Fans of that work will find value of something here; I have to admit, however, it's not my cup of tea.

Jones is a highly decorated and well-respected author, so I can only assume it's a mark against my personal taste that the collection didn't resonate with me. When a collection delves directly into the everyday world, eschews heightened tension, and prefers straightforward prose, I tend to lose interest. If not high stakes, then give me lyrical, inventive prose; if not that, give me some lesser mix of the two. But to leave them both to the side in favor of something quiet, slow, and minimal, and I honestly fail to be enchanted.