All Aunt Hagar's Children Book

I was really excited to read this book as All Aunt Hagar's Children was written by Pulitzer Prize winner Edward P. Jones (The Known World). Although I liked the premise behind this book of short stories which deals with the African-American experience in Washington DC throughout historical time,regrettably I just couldn't get into it.

The first, In the Blink of God's Eye is about newlyweds, Ruth and Aubrey Patterson as the set about starting their new life in Washington. Shortly after their arrival, Ruth discovers an infant tied into a tree. Although she is not keen on city life, she is enamored with the child. As the book progresses, the protagonists increase with age. This is the same formula that Jones uses in his other book of short stories, Lost in the City. As other reviewers found that these characters paralleled those in All Aunt Hagar's Children, I tried to get a hold of the other book so that I may read them in tandem and gain further insight. Try as I might the stories remained words on a page. I rarely found myself transported to some other time and space; breathing in the atmosphere of the characters. Although others may be able to empathize more with the characters and find the themes more relevant to their lives, it just didn't do it for me.