All Aunt Hagar's Children

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All Aunt Hagar's Children
First edition
AuthorEdward P. Jones
LanguageEnglish
GenreShort stories
PublisherAmistad
Publication date
August 29, 2006
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint

All Aunt Hagar's Children (2006) is a collection of short stories by African-American author Edward P. Jones; it was his first book after winning the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for The Known World. The collection of 14 stories centers on African Americans in Washington D.C. during the 20th century. The stories can be broken down by how the characters suffer burdens from families, society, and themselves.[1] "Each story traces a journey--planned or unplanned, taken or failed--and an obvious root/route symbolism runs throughout the collection."[1] Jones is noted for writing long short stories and these are no exception, they are sometimes called "novelistic", characters are fully fleshed out.[1]

The stories of his first and third book are connected. As Neely Tucker says:

"There are 14 stories in "Lost," ordered from the youngest to the oldest character, and there are 14 stories in "Hagar's," also ordered from youngest to oldest character. The first story in the first book is connected to the first story in the second book, and so on. To get the full history of the characters, one must read the first story in each book, then go to the second story in each, and so on."[2]

Reception

In the November/December 2006 issue of Bookmarks, the book was scored 4.5 out of 5. The magazine's critical summary reads: "Pulitzer Prize–winning author Edward P. Jones (The Known World, Nov/Dec 2003) once again unfurls his extraordinary literary talent on the world".[3] On BookBrowse, the book was rated 5 out of 5 from "Critics' Consensus". For the media reviews on a rating scale out of five: The Washington Post, Booklist, Kirkus Reviews, and Publishers Weekly reviews under five.[4]

All Aunt Hagar's Children won the 2007 Hurston/Wright Legacy Award.[5] In 2024, it was ranked #70 on the New York Times list of best 100 books of the 21st century.[6]

Footnotes

  1. ^ a b c John Allan Harrison. "All Aunt Hagar's Children", The Quarterly Conversation
  2. ^ Neely Tucker, "The Known World of Edward P. Jones" Archived 2016-12-20 at the Wayback Machine, The Washington Post, November 15, 2009.
  3. ^ "All Aunt Hagar's Children By Edward P. Jones". Bookmarks. Archived from the original on September 8, 2015. Retrieved January 14, 2023.
  4. ^ "All Aunt Hagar's Children". BookBrowse. Retrieved October 4, 2023.
  5. ^ "The Hurston/Wright Legacy Award". African American Literature Book Club. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023. Retrieved April 29, 2024.
  6. ^ "The 100 Best Books of the 21st Century". The New York Times. July 8, 2024. Retrieved July 9, 2024.