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Understanding John Edgar Wideman (Hardcover)
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Understanding John Edgar Wideman (Hardcover)
Series: Understanding Contemporary American Literature
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Among the many gifted African American authors who emerged in the
1970s and 80s, John Edgar Wideman is one of the most challenging
and innovative. His analytical mind can turn almost any topic into
an intellectual adventure, whether it is playground basketball, the
blues, the prison experience, father-son relationships, or the
stories he lived or heard growing up in the impoverished section of
Pittsburgh known as Homewood. In Understanding John Edgar Wideman,
D. Quentin Miller offers a comprehensive overview of Wideman's
writings, which range from the critically acclaimed books of the
Homewood Trilogy to lesser known writings such as the early novels
A Glance Away and The Lynchers. Notably Miller includes the first
scholarly analysis of Writing to Save a Life, Wideman's recently
published meditation on the military trial and execution of the
father of civil rights martyr Emmett Till. In his fiction,
nonfiction, and works that artfully combine both forms, Wideman has
employed a multilayered and often difficult writing style in order
to explore a wide range of topics. Miller tackles such topics as
African American folk history, the intersection of personal and
public history, the confluence of oral and written traditions, and
the quest for meaning in nihilistic urban settings where black
families struggle against crime, poverty, and despair. Miller also
shows how Wideman's singular personal history is interwoven into
his writings. His impressive accomplishments, including an Ivy
League education and numerous literary honors, have come alongside
family tragedies. By the time his sixth novel was published, both
his brother and son were serving life sentences for murder, a
source of anguish that he wrestled with in Brothers and Keepers and
Fatheralong. Wideman writes with such authority on so many subjects
that readers frequently have no idea what to expect with a new
publication. Understanding John Edgar Wideman is thus a necessary
guide to a prolific, varied, and essential oeuvre.
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