Superb view of the "other Washington"
When I read The Known World, Edward P. Jones' novel about black slaveowners, I was impressed - and even more so when it turned out he hadn't done reams of research for it. He'd imagined the world...he'd created fiction that seemed totally grounded in time and place, even down to the smallest detail. Which is what the best fiction writers do. So I backtracked to Lost in the City, stories about D.C., where I live. And I was struck again by how spare, and direct, and moving his stories and people are. He's one of my favorite fiction writers now - he makes the world I know come alive - and time that is gone seem very real.
