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Edward P. Jones

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All Aunt Hagar's Children: Stories Kindle Edition

by Edward P. Jones (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

4.3 270 ratings

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In fourteen sweeping and sublime stories, five of which have been published in The New Yorker, the bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Known World shows that his grasp of the human condition is firmer than ever

Returning to the city that inspired his first prizewinning book, Lost in the City, Jones has filled this new collection with people who call Washington, D.C., home. Yet it is not the city's power brokers that most concern him but rather its ordinary citizens. All Aunt Hagar's Children turns an unflinching eye to the men, women, and children caught between the old ways of the South and the temptations that await them further north, people who in Jones's masterful hands, emerge as fully human and morally complex, whether they are country folk used to getting up with the chickens or people with centuries of education behind them.

In the title story, in which Jones employs the first-person rhythms of a classic detective story, a Korean War veteran investigates the death of a family friend whose sorry destiny seems inextricable from his mother's own violent Southern childhood. In "In the Blink of God's Eye" and "Tapestry" newly married couples leave behind the familiarity of rural life to pursue lives of urban promise only to be challenged and disappointed.

With the legacy of slavery just a stone's throw away and the future uncertain, Jones's cornucopia of characters will haunt readers for years to come.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Following the Pulitzer Prize–winning The Known World (2003), Jones offers a complex, sometimes somber collection of 14 short stories, four of which have appeared in the New Yorker. As in his previous collection of short fiction, Lost in the City (1992), Jones centers his storytelling on his native Washington, D.C. Here, though, Jones broadens his chronological scope to encompass virtually the entire 20th century and a wide range of experiences and African-American perspectives, from a man who has kept the secret of his adultery for 45 years, to another whose most difficult task on leaving prison for murder is having dinner with his brother's family. Often, Jones presents characters who have been away from the South long enough to mourn the loss of values and connections they traded for the too-often failed promise of urban success, but he also portrays the nation's capital as a place of potential redemption, where small curses and small miracles intertwine, and where shifting communities and connections can literally save one's life. Each of its denizens comes through with his own particular ways and means for survival, often dependent on chance, and rendered with unsentimental sympathy and force: "Caesar flipped the quarter. The girl's heart paused. The man's heart paused. The coin reached its apex and then it fell." (Sept.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Bookmarks Magazine

Pulitzer Prize?winning author Edward P. Jones (The Known World, **** Nov/Dec 2003) once again unfurls his extraordinary literary talent on the world. Though a few reviewers admit he makes "occasional missteps" (New York Times), the overall effect of these poignant, demanding, and nonlinear stories is respectful awe. These are short stories, yes, but all of the tales employ novelistic time shifts and multiple subplots. The characters are utterly human and given to temptation, but Jones treats them all with admirable tenderness. At the same time he persuasively honors their biblical antecedent Hagar, the woman cast out by Abraham, the mother of a new nation (perhaps Africa), and the Bible's first slave.

From Booklist

In 14 short stories, Jones, author of the acclaimed novel The Known World (2003), demonstrates his skill at drawing complex and nuanced characters and predicaments. Washington, D.C., is the setting for this collection of stories in assorted time frames with assorted characters, most of whom come from the rural South, and all of whom are coping with the transformation of their lives and their adjustments to a new way of life. A young husband and wife, Aubrey and Ruth, are confounded by the faster pace of a city where babies are abandoned and love cools. A young man, anticipating his last days in D.C. as he dreams of a new life in Alaska (a novel place for a black man), is captivated by a murder investigation he reluctantly agrees to do for a family friend and the last words of an old white woman. He cradled the woman in his arms after she was struck by a streetcar and heard her dying words, spoken in Yiddish, words that haunt him--and threaten his future plans--although he doesn't understand them. Arlene is cursed by her uncanny survival of a lifelong series of tragedies that has taken those around her since childhood. Her sadness and loneliness are briefly broken as she meets kindred spirits in a young girl and a Guatemalan woman. Jones' stories are rich in detail and emotions as he plumbs the intricacies of people's relationships with one another and with spiritual forces at work in urban as well as natural environments. Readers who enjoyed The Known World will relish these varied gems of Jones' talent for storytelling. Vanessa Bush
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"[An] extraordinary novel--the best new work of American fiction to cross my desk in years."

About the Author

Edward P. Jones, the New York Times bestselling author, has been awarded the Pulitzer Prize, for fiction, the National Book Critics Circle award, the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Lannan Literary Award for The Known World; he also received a MacArthur Fellowship in 2004. His first collection of stories, Lost in the City, won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was short listed for the National Book Award. His second collection, All Aunt Hagars Children, was a finalist for the Pen/Faulkner Award. He has been an instructor of fiction writing at a range of universities, including Princeton. He lives in Washington, D.C.

From AudioFile

Peter Francis James's melodious baritone is beautifully suited to this fine collection of short stories by Edward P. Jones, who won a Pulitzer Prize for his earlier novel, THE KNOWN WORLD. The stories are predominantly about Southerners moving North to Washington, D.C., in the early and mid-twentieth century; although set relatively recently, they are replete with passages that seem as if they should begin "once upon a time." Accordingly, James speaks with a warmth and rhythm that invite listeners to settle back and listen. His pacing, particularly his use of telling pauses, is adept. And he shades characters with just enough personality to color the already-vivid scenes. A.C.S. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000JMKSXS
Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperCollins e-books; Reprint edition (October 13, 2009)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ October 13, 2009
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 3341 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 416 pages
Page numbers source ISBN ‏ : ‎ 0060557575

Best Sellers Rank: #162,332 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #80 in African American Studies
- #180 in U.S. Short Stories
- #610 in Sea Stories

Customer Reviews:
4.3 270 ratings

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Edward P. Jones won the PEN/Hemingway Award and was nominated for the National Book Award for his debut collection of stories, Lost in the City.

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4.3 out of 5

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C. D. Elder

Tapestry

Reviewed in the United States on January 30, 2021

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This is a review of both Lost in the City and All Aunt Hagar’s Children. These short stories in these two collections can be read separately, but are subtly linked in such a manner that they are best read together. In fact, each collection contains 14 short stories, and each story is related to its pair in the other collection. The links, usually in the appearance of a major or minor character, enrich both stories by entwining them to each other. Read them side by side if you can.

Oh the stories are so rich! The author has immense empathy for all his characters, even the ones who do awful things. The stories often have multiple threads woven into a tapestry that immerse the reader as if in a novel. Jones’s unique voice weaves the world of Black people living in Washington, D.C. into a narrative that feels as real as if you were walking among the characters, yourself (in my case a White southern man in his 50’s) one or two haunted generations away from a former life left behind in the Jim Crow South. The stories generally take place in the 1950’s to 1980’s, but have a timeless, rooted quality.

These stories and Jones’s fantastic novel The Known World comprise his whole published oeuvre. I consider him among my very favorite authors, though his works be few. Treat your heart to all his books.

9 people found this helpful

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Hawaiian

Compelling characters and stories that stay

Reviewed in the United States on September 18, 2021

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Compelling characters and stories that stay with you for long afterwards are just two reasons to read this collection of short stories. Mostly set in Washington DC, the collection captures a vivid black community at mid-twentieth century. I had never heard of the author before reading these stories, but I admired his extraordinary writing and will read more of his work.

5 people found this helpful

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Karen Delucas

Good read

Reviewed in the United States on March 17, 2022

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Really loved this book, something different.

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Louise Adler

5 stars are not enough for All Aunt Hagar’s Children

Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2021

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I read cover to cover and tried to find more pages-what stories!
Short stories are so amazing and Mr. Jones tells the absolute best. There is one question however in one he writes about picking cotton and going up and down the rows with a cup of water getting bugs, WHAT? I have picked many a sack of cotton and never was water involved we would have been accused of trying to add weight to the cotton not to mention ruin with mildew. Still and all great to the nth degree. Write more please.

7 people found this helpful

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Rocco

Never mind the quality, just enjoy the contents.

Reviewed in the United States on September 20, 2008

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The stories in this collection have more in common with the novel, 'The Known World', than with the other collection of Edward P Jones short stories, 'Lost in the City', in that they tend to drift and ramble in time, the past frequently cutting across narration of the present. This is a part of the Jones art which presents an extra challenge to the reader. Nevertheless, nothing in this collection detracts from my opinion of Edward P Jones as a wonderful writer who paints a disturbing picture of the cyclical brutality of life. The stories in 'All Aunt Hagar's Children' have not made as deep an impression on me as those of 'Lost in the City', but I am glad they are in my library.

As for the production quality of the hardcover book, it is as cheap and nasty as any book I have handled. The pages, whose texture reminds me of blotting paper, seem to have been cut (torn?) by pre school children during a let's-play-with-blunt-scissors session just after morning nap. The front cover was dented and the first few pages crinkled - perhaps damaged in transit, but quite consistent with the substandard production quality. Not a book I would be proud to hand on to my children, (unless they be short of cleaning material). I must add, in fairness, that this is my first disappointment with any product ordered through Amazon.

11 people found this helpful

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Bonnie McCune

An Astounding Collection for Any and All

Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2009

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"All Aunt Hagar's Children" is simply the best collection of short stories I've ever read. This was my introduction to Edward P. Jones' work, and I cannot rank it high enough. There should be a category of ten stars. The stories are beautifully written, and the emotions conveyed (and raised in the reader) are so sensitive and delicate, they make the reader a better person. Jones has won a "genius grant," and he fully deserves it.

4 people found this helpful

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Susan Heitner

A beautiful Book

Reviewed in the United States on November 2, 2020

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Each story was unique. The author took such care to create a full world for each story. Some characters had had done wrong, some were virtuous and all were unique. I learned so much about Washington DC. It was a great pleasure to read the book!

2 people found this helpful

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Jeff Nathan

Wonderful Stories

Reviewed in the United States on September 2, 2020

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Never understood the connection between the stories except they all took place in Washington but each stood alone so well...

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Irene P.

Great Deal

Reviewed in Spain on January 22, 2013

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Buying this second hand book has been a great deal. With such a cheap price I could not resist and it really looks new, never would tell it is a second hand book. Thank you Fuze!

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