Edward P. Jones has a very interesting writing style. To me it feels as if he is able to find every perfect word and put them together to create something so engaging. However, I say this when I did not even enjoy this story, not until almost the end.
This story occurred in a span of a couple weeks, and followed the life of a young black man living in DC. His dream of running off to Alaska all to prevalent in his mind caused him to be quite melancholic during those two weeks. He had been asked by Miss Agatha to solve the case of her murdered son Ike who was shot in the head.
What made things much more interesting was that Edward P. Jones was leading the reader on the same hunt that the narrator is going on. Jones somehow manages to make us feel the whole “meh why am I doing this” mood that the narrator is carrying with him during his independent investigation. The lack of answers, clues, and actually caring about figuring out what happened to Ike was almost non-existent. However, something made the narrator keep going, and when he learned of Fish Eyes he was ready to throw in the towel and focus on Alaska, but he went back to Ike’s apartment one last time and found out the truth.
This goose chase of emotions that Jones put both the narrator and the reader through is only capable with experience and the understanding of how to write a good story.