‘A New Man’ by Edward P. Jones

A New Man by Edward P. Jones, 1992

The magic trick:

Showing us two different parental relationships

Like so many of the stories in the Lost In The City collection, hard work mingles with disappointment until it turns into tragedy in “A New Man.” It’s a potent and incredibly frustrating combination.

“A New Man” is able to further amplify those feelings by showing us two different parental relationships – Woodrow and his father; and Woodrow and his daughter.

And that’s quite a trick on Jones’s part.

The selection:

“You keep telling me that I’ll be hurt or lost,” the old man wrote Woodrow. “But I know the way that Washington, D.C. is set up. I came there once maybe twice. How could I get lost. Take a chance on me, and we’ll have that child home before you can blink one eye. I can bring Sparky he got some bloodhound in him.”

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