#742 A New Man- Edward P. Jones

#742 A New Man- Edward P. Jones

This is a family story, a sad one. Woodrow is a poor working man with a bad heart and a simple life. He has a wife, a daughter and a father that writes to him about his visions. He is the only son that writes back. Their world is small, and a bit somber. He is unhealthy and that weighs over everything.

One day he comes home from work and finds his fifteen year-old daughter cavorting with two boys. He angrily shoos them out of the house, banishes his daughter to her room, and lies down to rest. When he awakes from his nap, his daughter has left the house and he will never see her again. She has runaway. 

He spends the rest of his life searching the street for her. This becomes his identity. After a while, he doesn’t even have hope for finding her, but he gets satisfaction from exploring the city and meeting new people. He shows them a picture of his daughter when she was five not because that will help him find her or because that’s how he remembers her, but because a picture of a cute five year old gets more sympathetic responses.

Life goes on, and family history repeats, as long as the heart keeps working.

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#714 Gospel- Edward P. Jones

#714 Gospel- Edward P. Jones

Sundays mean church and church means Gospel music. Vivien is the leader of the Gospelteers, a local Gospel group that makes the rounds to different services every Sunday. The four woman are very good and in demand. But just because you sing on Sunday in church doesn’t mean you’re a saint. Vivien and her friend Diane and several of the congregation we see are sinners through and through. But there’s nothing wrong with singing and praying to save your soul.

Rating: 7-7-8-6 Total= 28

#686 A Butterfly on F Street- Edward P. Jones

#686 A Butterfly on F Street- Edward P. Jones

This is an uncomfortable meeting between Mildred and the woman that her husband left her for. They had been together for twenty-seven years, and with the new woman for the last two. He died six months ago, and this is the first time the two woman had ever met face to face. 

The woman is cordial and respectful and seems understandable a little disheveled, all things that Mildred notices. That still doesn’t make her lighten up on her wanting to hit this woman however. The two part without incident, but Mildred is left with an empty feeling of sad contemplation.

They say that cancer kills you twice, Mildred is reminded of, like her husband’s death. In a way heir marriage died twice as well, once when he left her and once when he passed away.

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#658 His Mother’s House- Edward P. Jones

#658 His Mother’s House- Edward P. Jones

This is a family story, a tragic one. Joyce has moved into her new house bought by her son, Santiago. He wants her to have all new furniture but she likes the old stuff, her stuff. She lives with Ricky, a common-law husband that works for Santiago. Santiago is a gangster. 

The trouble starts when Humphrey owes money to Santiago. He is like a second son to the family and Joyce has know him his whole life, but money is money. Family should be more important, but blood is thicker than water and Humphrey isn’t really Santiago’s brother, so his leniency will only go so far.

When the conflict ends in tragedy, all Joyce wants to do is create a safe haven for her son, That’s what mother’s do. “And outside that house there was a very cruel world and she did not like to think that her child was out there without a place to come to.”

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#630 Lost in the City- Edward P. Jones

#630 Lost in the City- Edward P. Jones

Lydia got a call late at night while a strange man lies in her bed. It was the home where her mother lived; she had just died. The onrush of emotions and memory hits her hard and she tries to gather herself up to go to her mother. She takes stock of her life and sets out.

While in the taxi, she is overwhelmed with memories. Each street, each part of town sparks another memory. She asks the cab to drive until they are lost in the city, somewhere with no connections or memories.

Rating: 8-7-8-7 Total= 30

#602 The Sunday Following Mother’s Day- Edward P. Jones

#602 The Sunday Following Mother’s Day- Edward P. Jones

This is a pretty violent story. Madeleine’s father killed her mother by stabbing her to death when she was four. Her older brother Samuel was also there. Violence begets violence and son’s take after their fathers. Twenty years later, Samuel killed his wife in the same way, leaving his children Maddie and Sam behind for Madeleine to take care of.

There are obvious parallels in these characters starting with the names. Sam-Samuel, Madeleine-Maddie, etc. It shows that the people in our families can be reflections of ourselves, extensions of our potential or weaknesses. How connected are we to our families? How large is our need for that connection that we would still feel that connection after such horrible acts?

Rating: 8-7-7-7 Total= 29

#567 An Orange Line Train to Ballston- Edward P. Jones

#567 An Orange Line Train to Ballston- Edward P. Jones

Marvella is a single mother of three. Each morning during rush hour she has to take her children on the subway, the Orange Line to Ballston. Jones does a pretty great job of conveying the stress it must feel like as Mother trying to take care and keep and eye on three kids in a crowded train.

They meet a man riding alone with long dreadlocks. Being curious, the children began asking questions about his hair, why he doesn’t cut it, it looks like the hair of a guy we saw in a horror movie, etc. Marvella is mortified but the man is genial and answers all their questions. 

They see him again the next day, and become even friendlier. As the weeks pass, they ride the same train often, Marvella likes this man, likes how he treats her children, wishes he would talk more to her, and looks forward to their brief encounters. But, anyone who has ever ridden subways knows, many such encounters, go as quickly as they come. 

Very charming story.

Rating: 8-7-8-8 Total= 31

#539 The Store- Edward P. Jones

#539 The Store- Edward P. Jones

Al was a normal twenty year old. He had a job after graduating high school (he called it a slave) but that only lasted till now. He was living with his mother and in no hurry to get another “slave” anytime soon. But his brother made him feel guilty about being a drain, and his mother, as only mothers can do encouraged him to apply for a job as a corner store clerk.

“Each Monday morning, like a whipped dog that stayed because he didn’t know any other master but the one that whipped him, I was at the store’s front door, waiting for her to open up.”

He never did quit, and before long he got his own apron, got small raises and eventually got part ownership. He was responsible and a staple in the community, but as things are, that wasn’t enough. His relationship didn’t work out and the store was closing down. Thankfully sometimes hard work pays off, and its time to take the next step.

Jones does a great job at writing literature that sounds like a chronicling of real life. This could be a real oral history of a real corner store in D.C. It doesn’t bowl you over with excitement, or hit you with strong emotion, but it remains as something very real.

Rating: 9-8-8-8 Total= 33

#506 Young Lions- Edward P. Jones

#506 Young Lions- Edward P. Jones

OK, right off the bat, I need to lay out a disclaimer. I was distracted in this story by the prevalence of a word that I cannot tolerate. The narrator kept referring to another character as “The Retarded Girl” sometimes five or ten times a page. It was distracting to a point it over-shadowed everything else for me.

I understand that to create a mood or to highlight a bias in the story, or an unfavorable characteristic of a character’s…well, character, that slurs and socially unacceptable monikers are often used. But, I personally couldn’t get past it in this story. The problem I think was that the story was written in the 3^rd person. So, every instance that the unfortunate slur was used, I didn’t hear it as coming from the character, but from the author, himself. A character’s language should never be softened no matter how offensive, as long as it’s within their personality. But a third person narration—at least for me—is different.

I’m sure some will think I’m being too sensitive, and maybe I am. There are several others stories from the past 500 or so that had very offensive language or subject matter and I barely made mention of them. I’m not trying to “pan” this story, just mention why I didn’t like it personally.

Because I acknowledge that my biases against that word effected my enjoyment of the story, I cannot honestly judge the quality of it, so I will not set a rating on this one. Sorry about that.

Notable Passage: “There were some things that God would not tolerate, and stealing flowers for the dead was one of them.”

#483 The Night Rhonda Ferguson Was Killed- Edward P. Jones

#483 The Night Rhonda Ferguson Was Killed- Edward P. Jones

Cassandra is a young wayward girl. She’s a tough-girl, partially homeless, violent, and spends her time skipping school. But she loves music and she love’s her best friend Rhonda. Rhonda is the pride of the neighborhood, a rising star in the music world.

While Rhonda is off to meet with record executives, Cassandra is on a little road trip with some girls like her. Then tragedy strikes.

Notable Passage: “She sang on into the night for herself alone, her voice pushing back everything she did not yet understand”

Rating: 8-8-8-8 Total= 32

#462 The First Day- Edward P. Jones

#462 The First Day- Edward P. Jones

This is a touching first day of school story. A mother takes her daughter to kindergarten for the first time. She takes her to the wrong school though. She wanted her daughter to go to the older school that is across from her church. That’s the school she knows about and that’s where she has thoughts of her daughter learning all the things she hasn’t.

When they arrive at the correct school we see that the mother herself can’t read. This is why her daughter’s education is so important. Her mother is proud but a little out of her element. We see new vs. old as a symbol here, the new school, her new shoes, etc. When her mother leaves her in the hands of her new teacher, we see her old socks have been torn, and the sound of her fleeting footsteps echo like the sound of time marching on.

Rating: 9-8-8-8 Total= 33

#441 The Girl Who Raised Pigeons- Edward P. Jones

#441 The Girl Who Raised Pigeons- Edward P. Jones

It’s the late 1950’s and on Myrtle ave. in Washington D.C. the neighborhood is falling apart. In a few years, it will be razed and taken over by the city. Besty Ann is a little girl being raised by her father. Her mother died of cancer late in her pregnancy and they were able to save her.

She is a survivor, but she is lonely. She is frightened by a neighboring barber who raises pigeons. The pigeons scare her the first time, but intrigue her enough that she wants to raise some herself. She is insistent, so her father builds a coup and for three years, Betsy raised her pigeons. Every morning before dawn, her father visits the pigeons and makes sure they alive. He wants to protect her from seeing one of her pigeons dead.

Of course there is only so long he can protect her; there is only so long they can stay there before the neighborhood is lost; and there is only so long she can keep the pigeons.

Rating: 8-8-7-7 Total= 30