In addition to his literary merits as an author, John Edgar Wideman’s personal story is often his most prolific prose. Years ago, Wideman’s brother was sentenced to life in prison; tragically, his son would soon embark on the same fate.
Fanon, A Novel explores the life of the revolutionary Frantz Fanon. Of Wideman’s new work in almost a decade, Lee Siegel writes in the New York Times:
“The narrator never does turn this book into the book he wants to write. Yet this failure is actually his success. The very fact that his memory and awareness of personal sadnesses, tragic events, vicious egos and iron injustices obstruct Wideman’s effort means that he is as revolutionary in his honesty about what is at stake in life as Fanon’s honesty was revolutionary in its effect. Read Wideman and listen to his astonishing bluntness, and you might start wondering, as Fanon himself must have, why white people keep writing novels — and running for public office — at all.”
Photo: John Edgar Wideman, left, and Frantz Fanon (NYT)
Posted on April 30, 2008 by Grace A Ali