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Beacon Press

The Unicorn Woman

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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. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Beacon Press


Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 20, 2024


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Print length ‏ : ‎ 192 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0807030031


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 35


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.8 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6.2 x 0.69 x 9.25 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #939,838 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #303 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Books) #3,654 in Black & African American Women's Fiction (Books) #5,407 in Women's Domestic Life Fiction


#303 in Black & African American Historical Fiction (Books):


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • blues and the bayeux tapestry
Format: Kindle
buddy guy, named after the blues singer (see the movie, Sinners), by the author, not his parents or anyone in the story. and then there’s his aunt maggie, a maker of giant doilies which can be hung on walls like tapestries, a metaphor in the making which also lends little to the story. a horned woman in a traveling carnival billed as the unicorn woman, the woman of buddy guy’s desire or merely his curiosity. surely the horn growing from the woman’ head is symbolic. aunt maggie in summing up her nephew’s desire for the unicorn woman defines a symbol: A wig can be anything. A horn can be a wig. A horn can be anything. Will you still love her without her horn? buddy guy repairs tractors. when work is slow he visits the carnival, never coming much closer to getting to know the unicorn woman. peopled with characters in buddy’s military past and his time wandering around europe after the war, the workers on his job, a lover at a rooming house, family members, engaging in platitudes and small talk, signifying nothing more than an author’s pretensions. consider this bit of blank reportage and exchange: He says he works at the local courthouse. I tell him that I know some Canadas in Kentucky. I don’t think they’re Quakers, though. “All Canadas ain’t kin, and all of them ain’t Quakers,” he replies, as we sit at the table eating supper. “But if ever I’m in Kentucky, I might look them up. We might be cousins.” “Or cousins of cousins,” his wife observes. gayl jones has assembled parts of a novel and laid them bare. the story goes and as it goes nowhere. jones has become fixated with french experimental writers like alain robbe-grillet and nathalie sarraute working during the 1950s. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on March 1, 2026 by Case Quarter
    • Good
Format: Kindle
Good story-telling. A whole book of story-telling. I bought it after reading the first part of it. In that first part, the writing contained intelligent new and creative ideas. After reading the first part I thought it could have been a contender for some prize. But as I read it, it just became a story told in an interesting way, but not like the beginning, so I had to speed-read through the rest of it. Most people who aren't as spoiled as I am by only the best writing, and who just want a good story should enjoy it. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on May 7, 2025 by jdmcox
    • Obsession and Dreaming
Format: Kindle
Buddy is a Black man, back from a sojourn in France after serving the at the end of WWII. His sojourn continues upon his return to the US. This novel is pleasingly enigmatic, venturing around in time and space as Buddy searches for the Unicorn Woman he sees at a carnival freak show. Time: the novel telescopes back and forth, one thought playing off another as themes like beauty, love, spirituality, belonging, but especially beauty, are meditated upon. Place: Buddy’s travels through rural Kentucky, Lexington, KY, Harlem, and Jim Crow Memphis frame Buddy’s experiences and recollections. This novel is musical, somehow harmonizing deep thoughts and meaningful deeds with a minimal framework of plot. Gayl Jones is a master of voice. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2024 by C. D. Elder
    • Mystical, Whimsical, and Deeper Than It Seems…
Format: Kindle
This is my first Gayl Jones book. Won’t be the last. There’s real alchemy here. All analysis and criticism will fail to come to terms with The Unicorn Woman. And that is exactly the author’s intention. This book is a warm, chuckling spell, something like a big-bosomed hug from beloved aunt.
Reviewed in the United States on May 19, 2025 by P. Lanzing
    • Not quite what you think it will be
Format: Hardcover
While the descriptions and stories the main character tells are interesting I was left confused about the unicorn woman. I kept hoping she would have more to do with the story or be revealed as something metaphorical. I found the story confusing and not quite as it appears.
Reviewed in the United States on October 12, 2024 by Michael Goza

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