I gave 4 stars for Lost in the City, but I firmly believe that when considered together, this and Lost in the City would be rightfully included in my list of the best English-language writing from the past decade.

You really should read both books together. The first story in Lost in the City is linked to the first story in All Aunt Hagar's Children, the second with the second, and so on. There are also complex connections between stories within an individual volume.

Edward P. Jones combines the economy of the short story, where every word is赋予了精确而深刻的重量, with the wide enfolding sweep of the long novel. It is truly remarkable and unforgettable.

Jones' prose is quietly, unobtrusively beautiful. However, it's difficult to select a representative quote for a review. When a sentence captures you and a passage takes your breath away, it's not because it depends on a fine turn of words or an easy flash of insight. As I mentioned before, it is because it has been constructed upon and against the weight of everything that has come before. "Craft" is an apt word for what Jones is doing. His writing is a careful, patient, and meticulous craft.

Anyway, here's one example, the last lines of one of my favorite stories, just to give you a sense of it.

The bright road eventually came back again and went on a bit until it dipped swiftly and disappeared once more. Momentarily. She waited and she could see, with some relief, where many people were walking and riding all along it once it reappeared, sloping gently down as it wound a crooked way to what her guidebook had told her was "the Valley of Enormous Science Mysteries and Smallest Happenings." She could see the eternal road emerge almost miraculously from the valley, still crooked, still shimmering, still full of humanity, and she turned to her new husband to tell him what the path ahead would be like.

Edward P. Jones is a remarkable writer who seems capable of writing about any subject and any character. His literary journey began with the publication of his first book of stories, Lost in the City, in 1992, when he was already 41 years old. This was a late entry onto the literary scene, but it was well worth the wait. In 2003, he published his only novel, The Known World, which was highly acclaimed and selected by the New York Times as the fourth best novel of the century, a remarkable achievement for an American author. His 2006 collection, Aunt Hagar’s Children, also made the top 100 list.

The characters in Aunt Hagar’s Children are all related to the minor characters in Lost in the City, but Jones’ task was more than just expanding on those characters. Each volume contains fourteen stories, and in the first volume, Jones insisted on a chronological order, from the youngest character to the oldest. In Aunt Hagar’s Children, the stories are not in the same strict chronological order, but there is a connection between the stories in each volume. The first story in Aunt Hagar’s Children is related to the first story in Lost in the City, and so on. This creates a sense of unity and depth throughout the two volumes.

One of the stories that stands out in Aunt Hagar’s Children is “Bad Neighbors.” This story is about a black neighborhood in Washington D.C. where most of the residents own their homes. However, there is a rental house in the midst of the neighborhood, and a family moves in who are very different from the others. The Benningtons are a poor family, and their possessions are old and worn. The neighbors look down on them and are suspicious of them. One of the boys in the Bennington family has a crush on a girl from one of the proper families, and she likes him too. But her father and the other neighbors are not happy about this. The story explores themes of class, race, and prejudice, and it shows how easily people can judge others based on their appearance or their circumstances.

Another story that charmed me was “Healers.” This story takes place in North Carolina and is about a prosperous doctor named Glynnis Holloway. Her mother has been ill for many years, visited nightly by witches who torment her. Glynnis and her father have tried everything to help her mother, but nothing has worked. They hire a woman named Maddie Williams as a day companion for her mother, and Maddie tells them about a root worker in Person County, North Carolina, who might be able to help. The family travels to North Carolina to see the root worker, Imogene Satterfield. Imogene is a cross-eyed woman with thick glasses who holds a walking stick with snakes wrapped around it. She lives in a small house and grows plants in her front and back yards that she uses for healing. The family stays with Imogene for seven weeks, and during that time, they learn a lot about themselves and about healing.

Edward P. Jones’ writing is rich and detailed, and his stories are full of human emotion and complexity. He doesn’t write to explain his race to white people, but rather to tell stories about the human experience. His work shows that black people have their own intelligence and understanding, and that their lives are just as rich and complex as anyone else’s. If he had written more, he would surely be talked about along with Toni Morrison. I would love to ask him why he hasn’t written more, and what he is working on now. His stories are a joy to read, and I highly recommend them to anyone who loves good literature.

I finished reading All Aunt’s Hagar Children a few days ago and felt compelled to come back and write a little blurb about it. The stories have truly lingered within me. As with any collection of stories, 3 or 4 tend to have a greater impact than the rest. However, I was quite surprised by the overall quality of this selection. It's no small feat to maintain a high standard in a book with 14 stories.

These are complex stories, filled with a multitude of secondary characters - neighbors, relatives, ancestors - who show up and add flavor and color to the main story line, creating entire universes. The language is poetic, and the prose is rich with both subtle and not-so-subtle magic realism. For example, the devil shows up at a grocery store, a woman paints pictures of people dead in different countries and times, and another woman goes blind while taking the bus home. But most often, the stories are about people dealing with the tragedies of their lives, small and big disappointments, and endless hope for what lies ahead.

I have a great love for short stories, a genre that I understand not every reader appreciates. Edward P. Jones truly excels in this genre. I adored his novel “The Known World”, but I find myself craving more of his short stories.

The character development in this book is truly outstanding. It is remarkable how the author has managed to bring the characters to life within the limited space of a short story.

However, alas, short stories have their limitations. They always seem to leave me hanging, craving more. It feels as if each of these stories has the potential to be a full-length novel.

If they were expanded into novels, I would have just kept reading without hesitation. The rich and complex characters, the interesting storylines, and the unresolved conflicts all make me yearn for more in-depth exploration.

Short stories can be a wonderful form of literature, but sometimes they just don't satisfy my appetite for a fully developed and immersive narrative. I can only hope that the author will consider expanding some of these stories into novels in the future.