The Unicorn Woman, Gayl Jones
The Unicorn Woman, Gayl Jones
List: $24.00 | Sale: $16.80
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The Unicorn Woman

Author: Gayl Jones

Narrator: Ruffin Prentiss III

Unabridged: 6 hr 30 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/20/2024

Categories: Fiction, Women, Southern, Fantasy

Synopsis

FINALIST FOR THE 2025 PULITZER PRIZE IN FICTION

"One of our greatest living authors."—Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston Globe

Marking a dramatic new direction for Jones, a riveting tale set in the Post WWII South, narrated by a Black soldier who returns to Jim Crow and searches for a mythical ideal

Set in the early 1950s, this latest novel from Pulitzer Prize and National Book Award finalist Gayl Jones follows the witty but perplexing army veteran Buddy Ray Guy as he embodies the fate of Black soldiers who return, not in glory, but into their Jim Crow communities.

A cook and tractor repairman, Buddy was known as Budweiser to his army pals because he’s a wise guy. But underneath that surface, he is a true self-educated intellectual and a classic seeker: looking for religion, looking for meaning, looking for love.

As he moves around the south, from his hometown of Lexington, Kentucky, primarily, to his second home of Memphis, Tennessee, he recalls his love affairs in post-war France and encounters with a variety of colorful characters and mythical prototypes: circus barkers, topiary trimmers, landladies who provide shelter and plenty of advice for their all-Black clientele, proto feminists, and bigots. The lead among these characters is, of course, The Unicorn Woman, who exists, but mostly lives in Bud’s private mythology.

Jones offers a rich, intriguing exploration of Black (and Indigenous) people in a time and place of frustration, disappointment, and spiritual hope.

About The Author

Gayl Jones was born in Kentucky in 1949. She attended Connecticut College and Brown University, and has taught at Wellesley and the University of Michigan. Her books include Corregidora, Eva’s Man, Mosquito, and The Healing, the last a National Book Award finalist and New York Times Notable Book of the Year as well as Palmares, a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the recently published THE BIRDCATCHER, which was a finalist for the National Book Award.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Andre on July 21, 2024

Hmmm? I’m not sure about this one. Not much of a story here. Her writing is up to par, but the tale seems…. corny. I can’t believe I just wrote that. The prose is steadfast, a hallmark of all her novels. However, to have this courageous prose wasted on a story of a search for a real life woman with......more

Goodreads review by Cody on March 11, 2025

I don't get it. Maybe it's poor advertising? Seems doubtful as Jones was never exactly on popular radars until recently. Contrarianism? Beats me. If, like myself, you thought that Mosquito was an absolute fucking joy, read on. This inhabits that same enculturating world that Jones dips in and out of,......more

Goodreads review by Geoff on November 17, 2024

Really fascinating read. A journey, an exploration. You become part of the fabric, the weave of post ww2 America. The racism is part of the weave it’s there. Buddy Guy lives with and moves across the mid-South.......more

Goodreads review by Tilly on February 25, 2025

Pretty good. Offered very interesting perspectives on black men after the war. The unicorn lady is definitely an effective metaphor......more

Goodreads review by Sage on February 11, 2024

I love how Gayl Jones writes sentences and ideas that swirl and swerve and serve. As a women who dated a man looking for his unicorn women, I loved the theme and discourse of this book. I can't wait to read more.......more

Quotes

"Jones is, without a doubt, one of the most influential Black writers of the 20th and 21st centuries...The Unicorn Woman is smart, and immaculately constructed..."
— The New York Times

“Her latest novel [The Unicorn Woman], infused with wordplay and humor, reveals her to be one of our greatest living authors.”
—Lauren LeBlanc, The Boston Globe

“Through Buddy’s picaresque journey, Gayl Jones shows her mastery of both dialogue and interiority. There is a bare minimum of scene-setting and little indication of actions such as standing, sitting or leaving a room. Instead we find encounter after encounter with richly individuated characters, each sporting his or her own verbal idiosyncrasies, as noted by a well-read travelling man with an acute ear for speech patterns, just like his creator.”
—Suzi Feay, The Times Literary Supplement

“In The Unicorn Woman, Gayl Jones presents a powerful portrait of post-war Black American life, blending history, mythology, and deep personal introspection.”
—New York Amsterdam News

“The novel’s biggest asset is its strong narrative voice. The reader is pulled into Buddy’s psyche as it drifts seamlessly through childhood memories, wartime recollections, and vivid dreams. . . . Jones’s novel deftly captures the disaffectedness of returning to a home that does not feel like home.”
—Southern Review of Books

“A surprising, welcome gift from one of America’s finest and least predictable writers.”
—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

“Jones’s rich characterizations and wit are on display.”
—Publishers Weekly

“Jones is skilled at balancing the observational with the intimate, and in Buddy we are given a fully realized character who epitomizes the frustrations, heartbreak, and humor of a generation of Black Americans.”
—Booklist

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