With the next Brooklyn book club meeting in less than a week, you should be heading into your last fifty pages. Unfortunately, you're still stuck on page 12, fighting through "In the Blink of God's Eye."
That's why we got cramming! With limited time to get through 14 thirty-page stories, it's time to get your priorities straight. Figuring out which stories are superior and which are little more than filler, however, is virtually impossible without magic. Lucky for you I've already read the whole book, so I'm in a good position to recommend a good alternative to unreliable, scattershot methods like "random guessing" and "reading the stories in order."
If I had to do it again, and I only had time to read a third of the book, these are the stories I'd tackle first:
Old Boys, Old Girls
Bad Neighbors
A Rich Man
All Aunt Hagar's Children
Blindsided
For my money, those are the five best. If you have more time and want to dig a little deeper, here are another five that probably won't kill you:
Common Law
Spanish in the Morning
The Devil Swims Across the Anacostia
A Poor Guatelmalan Dreams...
Resurrecting Methuselah
And honestly, I would only read these last four if I wanted to capture Edward P. Jones at his least impressive:
Tapestry
In the Blink of God's Eye
Root Worker
Adam Robinson
Good luck, folks, and happy cramming! Hope to see you at 1:30 this Sunday.
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5 comments:
Hmm. I have to admit that I've only read one of the stories so far, but it was 'In the Blink of God's Eye,' and I really liked it.
Prepare to THROW DOWN this Sunday, Baker!
I'm about halfway through, and my favorite so far is Resurrecting Methuselah, for whatever that's worth...
Maybe you can't go by me. Then again, maybe the whole world is WRONG.
I have four stories left and three of them are in the "cram session" category! Better get reading. Really like the book though. (And my favorite story so far is Adam Robinson--it made me cry.)
This audiobook won an Earphones award from AudioFile Magazine!
ALL AUNT HAGAR'S CHILDREN
Edward P. Jones
Read by Peter Francis James
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 [Published: DEC 06/ JAN 07]
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