Car Rides in Edward P. Jones’s “The Gospel”

By Kenton Rambsy

In Edward P. Jones’s fiction, the way a character gets around DC decides where the most personal talk happens.

In “Gospel,” Vivian Slater drives her gospel group to two churches on one Sunday, from her home east of the Anacostia River to Diane’s house in Southeast, Claridge Towers downtown, a burned storefront in Shaw and a large church off 14th Street. Only a car lets the group cover that much of DC in one day, and Vivian decides the route.

To bring out conflicts inside the group, Jones keeps four women in one car. On 11th Street, Maude complains that her building has “turned bad” and talks of moving back South. On the way home, Diane asks Vivian to stop at 14th and Fairmont so she can meet a man who is not her husband. Vivian snaps, “I ain’t your gotdamn chauffeur!” When Diane gets out at Claridge Towers instead of riding home, Vivian drives off alone and turns the wrong way at Thomas Circle.

The day covers more than ten miles of driving, through neighborhoods that ranged from 30 to 95 percent Black in 1990, when DC was 66 percent. Vivian’s side of the river was 95 percent, Diane’s blocks near Lincoln Park 30 and Claridge Towers 61, while both churches sat in areas above 85. The car carries women from very different parts of the city into the same mostly Black churches.

Jones uses a Sunday drive across DC to gather women from three neighborhoods into one car, and the miles between stops give their tensions begin to surface.

In Edward P. Jones’s “Gospel,” set around 1990, Vivian Slater drives from her side of the Anacostia River (95 percent Black) to Diane’s blocks near Lincoln Park (30), Claridge Towers (61), a burned storefront in Shaw (89) and 14th Street (86). DC was 66 percent. Her car brings together women from very different parts of the city.

Related: 

• Black Short Story Findings