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A review by melissadeemcdaniel
American Histories: Stories by John Edgar Wideman
5.0
In American Histories, Wideman brilliantly exploits a “threefold ordering of times”, offering the reader a story in the time of its narrator, the time in which the narrative takes place, and in historical time.
In the first story of American Histories, John Brown and Frederick Douglass debate the morality and tactics of a slave uprising. Both men are willing to give their lives, and deaths to end slavery. Wideman narrates the debate in the voices of Brown, Douglass, a modern storyteller, and strikingly, a “colored John Brown”, all living the legacy of JB and FD.
In other stories, Wideman remembers his dead family, tells a hall of mirrors story of watchers watching watchers watching, and a greek tragedy of murdered and murderers.
In the first story of American Histories, John Brown and Frederick Douglass debate the morality and tactics of a slave uprising. Both men are willing to give their lives, and deaths to end slavery. Wideman narrates the debate in the voices of Brown, Douglass, a modern storyteller, and strikingly, a “colored John Brown”, all living the legacy of JB and FD.
In other stories, Wideman remembers his dead family, tells a hall of mirrors story of watchers watching watchers watching, and a greek tragedy of murdered and murderers.