Languages of Home - by John Edgar Wideman (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

In this first-ever collection of nonfiction by John Edgar Wideman, a "towering figure in American literature" (The Nation), five decades of cultural and literary criticism paint a vivid portrait of America's changing landscape and chronicle the emergence and evolution of a generational talent.

"Wideman is a writer of titanic skill." --4Columns

John Edgar Wideman, acclaimed since the early 1970s for his award-winning fiction and memoirs, has long been engaged in a project to redefine, from the perspective of an American of color, the wondrous and appalling power of his country's literary culture and history. Now, curated by him, this first-time collection from his extensive body of long-form journalism and biographical essays offers readers a chance to see and judge for themselves how Wideman has proven himself to be a luminous witness of America's history.

This volume goes beyond mere compilation; its challenging, insightful critical essays tell the story of a nation in transition--from the shame of legalized human slavery, to the civil rights movement, to the rise of the Obama era, and beyond. Originally featured in publications such as Esquire, Vogue, and The New Yorker, these narratives explore the elusive cores of American culture, politics, and identity.

Through his unique depictions of iconic figures such as Zora Neale Hurston, Malcolm X, Spike Lee, Emmett Till, and Michael Jordan, and intimate questioning of his own life, Wideman shares his original views of the changing tides of life in the United States. The result is an "essential chronicle of the American experience" (Publishers Weekly, starred review).

Review Quotes

Praise for Languages of Home

"Extraordinary... When you finish a Wideman essay you feel a little different from when you started. You've gone somewhere and had your senses rearranged a little. Poetry has a way of doing that, even when it's wrapped in prose."
--The Boston Globe

"Wideman is a writer of titanic skill.... certainly a talented enough writer to build a monument to in the form of collected works. However, I think the triumph of Languages of Home is that it goes a step further, largely through thoughtful curation, to give us a pathway through the mind of Wideman. His beliefs, his principles, his willingness to explore and not detach himself from his themes and the central engine of his oeuvre."
--Hanif Abdurraqib, 4Columns

"For both aficionados and readers new to him, Languages of Home offers a cogent summary of the writer's overlapping preoccupations."
--The Pennsylvania Gazette

"Wideman's 1985 essay 'The Language of Home' was about the power of words to capture our foundations, so it's fitting that his new collection covering 50 years of his powerful prose mimics that essay's title. The new title's plural refers to the author's constant themes, which aren't surprising. What does surprise is his prescience about still-relevant concerns, from a disappearing middle class to police brutality."
--The Los Angeles Times

"Novelist, essayist, and critic Wideman (Slaveroad) delivers a profound, career-spanning collection of essays on literature, sports, and culture...Incisive and enthralling, the collection puts Wideman's keen critical eye and cultural awareness on full display. The result is an essential chronicle of the American experience."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"Through a mixture of journalism, literary and cultural criticism, and biographical and political essays, the varied career of the prolific Wideman is on full display in this new collection of his long-form nonfiction writing... Wideman is always insightful, honest, and absorbing. This collection is an essential addition to a masterful oeuvre and a perfect companion to Wideman's short fiction anthology, You Made Me Love You (2021)."
--Booklist (starred review)

"Brittle and brilliant, a welcome record of Black life and thought in an often unwelcoming nation."--Kirkus (starred review)

Praise for Slaveroad and John Edgar Wideman

"Master of language."
--New York Times Book Review

"Mr. Wideman is one of the great tragedians of American literature."
--Wall Street Journal

"One of literature's preeminent voices...This book offers a fresh perspective of slavery's impact and a confirmation of Wideman's exalted status in American letters."
--New York Magazine

"Part autofiction, part history and part memoir, this book is an alchemy of genres. Wideman meditates on the word "slaveroad" as a metaphor--both temporal and corporeal--to examine its various meanings and its connection to the trans-Atlantic slave trade."
--The New York Times

"A work of bruising candor and obsessive originality....the Nobel committee has not given an American fiction writer the literature prize for more than 30 years, but if its members are of a mind to, I hope they begin their considerations here."
--Wall Street Journal

"[Wideman] tells and retells powerful, miry tales in Slaveroad that are incantatory, transporting and incendiary."
--New York Times Book Review

"An agonized howl, a lament, an audacious quest to 'revisit and reify moments in my life that haunt and form me."
--LA Times

"A genre-defying and clear-eyed meditation on the roiling effects of transatlantic slavery on past and present lives, including [Wideman's] own...By mining the depths of our shared history across place and time in his impassioned 'Slaveroad, ' Wideman invites us to come along with him on a journey (or a daring, self-excavating exercise?) both immeasurably rigorous and rewarding."
--Minneapolis Star Tribune

"A blend of memoir, fiction, and history that charts the 'slaveroad' that runs through American history, spanning the Atlantic slave trade to the criminal justice system...[for] fans of Clint Smith and Ta-Nehisi Coates."
--The Millions

About the Author

John Edgar Wideman's books include, among others, Languages of Home, Slaveroad, Look for Me and I'll Be Gone, You Made Me Love You, The Homewood Trilogy, American Histories, Writing to Save a Life, Brothers and Keepers, Philadelphia Fire, Hoop Roots, and Sent for You Yesterday. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award twice and has twice been a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and National Book Award. He is a MacArthur Fellow and a recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement, and the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story. He divides his time between New York and France.