Lost In The City

"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 specia [...]

This is a well-written collection, comprised of 14 stories about the lives of African-American characters living in Washington, D.C. I read it in large part because several years ago I was extremely impressed with Jones’s novel, The Known World. This was the author’s first book and though imperfect, it also shows a strong literary style.These stories follow the lives of ordinary people, though there is a pervasive sense of loss, and domestic violence and tragedy are common occurrences. Thoug [...]

Pulitzer-and-numerous-other-literary-prize winner Edward P. Jones’ “Lost in the City” was one of the books that had been chilling on my bookcase for a while before I cracked it open, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to grow a bit before digging into it. I got the first nudge from Junot Diaz at the National Book Festival, when he listed Jones as one of his influences. I’d read “The Known World” back when it came out, but I don’t think I’d developed the teeth necessary to reall [...]

As someone who was born and raised in Washington, DC, I could not get enough of this book.  It reminded me so much of my life living on East Capital street in N.E DC. The DC Stadium, Anacostia, H.D. Woodson, and Spingard high schools.  The DGS grocery store where I would walk to and buy every day items for my grandmother and me.  My first bus trip with my grandmother, who got up real early, took a long bath, sprayed “Secret” deodorant and baby power all over her then get me ready by makin [...]

This book feels like a gift to Native Washingtonians. As I read, I envisioned the neighborhoods and how different they are now. Today I often hear the natives speak about gentrification. And then there's the recent news that Washington, DC is no longer "Chocolate City." It's obvious to me when Jones writes about certain parts of the city that even if the buildings look the same, the people don't. The stories seem so matter of fact - authentic. They're not flashy or dramatized. It's like it could [...]

If Edward P. Jones were asked to suggest an epigraph for Lost in the City, I imagine he would give serious thought to the inscription over the door to Plato’s Academy: “Let no one enter here who is ignorant of geometry.” Much is made of the streets of Washington D.C. both within these stories and within the province of conspiracy theorists. The original street layout of our national capital was designed by Pierre Charles L’Enfant, a Freemason like many of the founding fathers, and the br [...]

This was Edward P. Jones first book. It is an amazing collection of stories centered around ordinary black people in DC. showing that ordinary people can be the stuff of extraordinary writing. These are not stories with a suprise ending or a message. Rather they are a slice of life with people who you might be sitting next to on the bus. Jones is not judgmental. They are all gods creatures, they are in one way or another lost in the city.I know Edward if only slightly and he is an unassuming guy [...]

Lost in the city is an apt and appropriate title for these 14 short stories. All take place in the African-American sections of Washington DC and all of the characters are black.The first story, The Girl Who Raised Pigeons, demonstrates that the characters are real and that they have the same feelings of love and self that whites have. Betsy Ann is eight when she first sees pigeons being raised by a barber friend of her father. It is love at first sight. Over the years she bothers her father for [...]

While many American cultural treasures rest on walls, under glass, or in archives in stodgy institutions in the nation's capital, Washington, D.C. is rarely thought of as a place that inspires and brings life to original works of art that speak of the District as a "real" city where "real" people live. It is certainly not, for instance, New York, San Francisco, or Los Angeles, as a beacon of American culture.When a work comes along, however, that brings something uniquely "of the District" to li [...]

UGH! Is there some rule that says that all sort stories must: 1) have some kind of plot twist or surprise, and 2) the surprise must be depressing? I mean, really? This collection opens with a story about a girl who raises pigeons. It ends with all the pigeons except two being killed by rats (sort of poetically ironic, considering that pigeons are flying rats). The two remaining pigeons escape and stare at the girl from across the way, refusing to come home since they are their compatriots were b [...]

Edward P. Jones’s first book Lost in the City is a collection of short stories that take place in settings around Jones's hometown of Washington D.C. The force of the collection is the depth to which he explores his characters. Through the use of simple language, Jones’s captivating style holds readers attention as he takes on topics that are disturbing, sad, and raw. Whether dealing with loss, crime, or wrongdoing, these stories do not pass judgment. In fact, a dominating theme comes throug [...]

"On an otherwise unremarkable September morning, long before I learned to be ashamed of my mother, she takes my hand and we set off down New Jersey Avenue to begin my very first day of school." So begins The First Day, one of the fourteen character driven short stories drawn from Edward P. Jones' award winning book, "Lost in the City." It is the story of an illiterate mother who sacrifices pride and seeks help from a stranger in order to get her young daughter enrolled in school and it is also t [...]

Jones, Edward P. LOST IN THE CITY. (1992). *****. This author burst on the scene with this, his first collection of short stories. The book won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the National Book Award. Jones, a native of Washington, D.C. and a current resident of Arlington, VA, writes his stories set in D.C. that explore the lives of a variety of black residents. These are some of the best stories you will ever read – full of compassion and wit – but as down-to-earth as you can [...]

I resisted this collection for a long time, partly because I didn't particularly enjoy The Known World and its plodding, deliberate prose style, which I mistook for something much more simplistic than it actually was. Since then I've become a much more patient reader, more capable of giving a writer like Jones my full attention. Which is good, considering that beneath Jones' rather plainspoken approach are narrative structures every bit as knotty as Alice Munro's. Jones' sentences span lifetimes [...]

This is an excellent book of short stories centered on life in Washington, DC in the second half of the 20th century. Jones' diverse range of characters is his biggest strength - his stories center on men and women; children, teenagers, adults and the very old; educated government workers, drug dealers, auto mechanics; folks from the rural South and city folks who look down on them; rich people and poor people. The characters are often morally ambiguous, and are written with humanity, sensitivit [...]

Jones describes his characters with a rich realism that makes the short stories enjoyable, even if their tone is not always upbeat. I especially got into "The Store," one of the longer stories with some character development, however the snippets of life described in "The Night Rhonda Ferguson Was Killed," "Marie," and "An Orange Line Train to Ballston" were also highlights for me. Being a metro-rider, the last of those was especially true-to-life - the woman scalding her children to sit facing [...]

I bought this book on a whim when I came across a cheap copy at a Book Warehouse. So glad I did; The narrative ebb, the weight and flesh Jones gives to sprawling, temporally layered stories cut me to the core. "A New Man" and "The Sunday Following Mother's Day" both emerged from a patient tone, a matter-of-fact voice; Jones lets the stories speak for themselves, laying and layering detail upon detail until the implication and emotion resound. Some of the stories are extraneous, such excess forgi [...]

This is Jones's first book, and in it you can glimpse the careful, direct manner of character development and fully realized world (in this case, Washington D.C.) that were put to such masterful use in "The Known World." These are all wonderful stories; some of them surprise you with their shifts (Jones deftly avoids any judgement), while others don't gain as much traction. Nothing negative to say--I just think that his later stories are more hard-hitting, and I'm so blown away by the novel (see [...]

Overlooked neighborhoods in the nation’s capital are the settings for these powerful short stories.“She came to know the city so well that had she been blindfolded and taken to practically any place in Washington, even as far away as Anacostia or Georgetown, she could have taken off the blindfold and walked home without a moment’s trouble. Her favorite place became the library park at Mount Vernon Square, the same park where Miss Jenny had first seen Robert and Clara together, across the s [...]

I'm not generally a short stories reader, but this is a fantastic collection, especially if you're a native or resident of DC. All 14 stories take place in historically African American neighborhoods of the District in the second half of the 20th century. They are all stories of struggle, told through patient and poignant vignettes of a whole cast of characters and the communities they are a part of. While all worth reading, my favorites are:The Girl Who Raised PigeonsThe Night Rhonda Ferguson W [...]

Its weird reading stories about the town in which you live. This is one of the greatest living writers in America, and we have him in DC. This elegaic examination of life in DC is by parts harsh, lonely, and violent but it also produces the bittersweet epiphanies that makes each of us human. While it has been cited as an homage to Joyce's Dubliners, I also sense traces of another American short story master Raymond Carver. There is, they both seem to cry out, beauty somewhere in all that misery, [...]

These stories are just about as good as contemporary short fiction gets. Jones loves and explores his displaced tragic characters with an unparalleled depth of feeling. It's a breath of fresh air to read a narrative that doesn't completely detach itself from its characters like much of today's postmodern literature. His plots keep you thoroughly engaged because he never interrupts them with thematic heavy-handedness. His stories by themselves speak about the human condition in ways that, if you [...]

These stories about working class, black DC are so beautiful and painful. I can't figure out his trick in this collection. There are no obvious hooks, often little to nothing "happens," and the sentences, while eerily perfect, don't call attention to themselves. Yet I kept gasping, or choking up, or putting a hand over my heart and saying "oh my god" read these. This guy is one of the most exciting American authors of our time.

I've never really been a fan of reading short stories, but I decided to give this a try and thank goodness that I did.Each of these stories will pull at a heart string. After completing each story I had to take a break just to think about what I just read. This collection was just absolutely breathtaking and I was overwhelmed by each individual story. Edward P. Jones is amazing and I cannot wait to read one of his novels.

Oh so excellent. And short stores. You can always read short stories. On the train. In between classes or even with a busy work life. You know it's an amazing collection when the characters from the stories pop into my head a year or two after the reading--on my way to work, in the subway, etc. as if their life stories somehow got interwoven into my own like people I had met.

Can anyone do the big, sprawling voice better than Edward P. Jones? I'm not sure. But each story in this collection gives you insight into an entire world, not just a few characters getting through a difficult situation like you see in so many other short story writers these days. Definitely read this book, if for no other reason than to observe the progression of a great writer.

One of the stories in this book was so good that I almost wished I hadn't read it, because I couldn't get it off my mind. The one called "The Sunday Following Mother's Day." This is one my favorite books.

Excellent collection of short stories, set in DC between the 50s and the 80s. Read because written by the author of the brilliant novel, The Known World. The collection does not disappoint with many great stories about a wide variety of characters.

I've read these stories--all taking place in various part of and featuring various residents of Washington, D.C.--again and again. Jones is simply one of the greatest story writers around.

the blocks i walk each day look different after reading these stories.