The Unicorn Woman - by Gayl Jones (Hardcover)

About the Book

"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"--

Book 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.

Review 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

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.