I'm a huge, huge Edward P. Jones fan. ( )

What a wonderful collection of stories. Jones is spectacular at capturing nuanced dialogue. ( )

Lost in the City (1992) - a collection of short stories - is Edward P. Jones' first book, followed by the Pulitzer Price winning novel The Known World (2003), and All Aunt Hagar's Children (2006), a second collection of short stories. Both Lost and Aunt Hagar are about blacks in Washington, DC where Jones grew up in the neighborhoods he writes about. His stories are like mini novels with lush detail, multiple fully evolved characters and densely colloquial prose.

The stories have a common theme surrounding an old colloquial saying "Don't get lost in the city". The word "lost" means having no direction, aimless, with no intention, and the stories are about people in that sort of state of mind, simply doing time with no direction home. It also means alienation, being lost is the opposite of family and compassion, the stories involve broken and dysfunctional families, coldness. Charles Dickens wrote about London and the poor of the 19th century, but his stories were the opposite of Jones. Instead of that "coming home to family" Christmas time spirit of Dickens, Jones invokes coldness, alienation, purposelessness. I hesitate to call Jones "anthropological" because it is also very aesthetically pleasing, but like Balzac did for Paris in the early 19th century and Dickens for London, Jones invokes the spirit of a time and place that, while not full of good feelings and happy endings, does speak truthfully. The last story of the book, "Marie", ends with an old woman listening to an audio oral-history and I think Jones is telling the reader how he sees his own work, a history of a people and place.

My favorite story is in the middle of the book, "The Store", it is the most uplifting and optimistic surrounded by stories of tragedy and sadness. It is about a poor boy done good by hard work and honesty. Other stories I thought were excellent include "The Sunday Following Mother's Day" about a husband who kills his wife for no reason, and the resulting years of failed relationships with his son and daughter. It's epic scope crosses generations of multiple people, but it is also grassroots, concerning people who are invisible to society. "His Mother's House" is about a street drug dealer and his relations with his family, it helped me better understand how families (mothers, fathers, sons) and the drug culture can intermingle ."A New Man" is a heartbreaking story of a 15 year-old girl who runs away from home and is never heard from again. Overall I think the stories in Aunt Hagar are better - more fully realized, longer - however these are still excellent, Jones is one of my favorite authors.

Truman Capote in his masterpiece In Cold Blood (1960) has the following quote (an actual quote from a sister to her brother who is in jail) which I think sums up Jones' stories:

"Your confinement is nothing to be proud of.. You are a human being with a free will. Which puts you above the animal level. But if you live your life without feeling and compassion for your fellowman - you are as an animal - "an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth" & happiness & peace of mind is not attained by living thus."

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd ( )

This book was actually read surprisingly quick after it was purchased. Within a few days, actually, miracles do happen on occasion. In fact that is what i felt when i read this book. Once again based on the writer's advent of winning awards like a Pulitzer I was encouraged to start buying his books. I had recently read the Dubblinners and was in the mood for short story book which are perfect for a train ride. I like the idea of finishing a story within the time and movements of a train ride through the El of Chicago are appealing to a book addict like myself.
This book is a beautiful as a window into the ordinary movement and day to day motions of life. The stories range from the innocence of raising birds to a mother knowingly taking advantage of her sons new found fortune selling drugs on the street. A character appears in the story that mimics the actions of a child and yet commands the presence and respect of a adults through money and poison. At times it deals with the loneliness of life, friendship, and adrupt actions that can cahnge our daily existence.
Never once in the reading of this book did I feel that the characters were fiction. The lives pictured moved past the story and if your imagination moved foward you could see the person age and grow along the way. In fact one character does seem to move foward in the book ever so slightly and makes two appearances, the first with no name. It deals with being black in America, something that many people don't understand or fail to comprehend. Growing up in places that mirror this existence gave me a better appreciation and understanding of the stories.
This a book to be read slowly and more than once to make sure that the tapestry the writer presents can be fully understood. I may have to wait a while before i read it again to fully register it again. ( )

Stories set in black D.C. many in the 50s and 60s. Especially good "The Store". Author is a Washington native and his descriptions are wonderful and accurate. ( )