Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society
by John Edgar Wideman
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In the tradition of his best-selling Brothers and Keepers, which was about himself and his imprisoned brother, John Edgar Wideman ("our most powerful and accomplished artist of the urban black world"--Los Angeles Times Book Review) gives a searingly honest meditation on "fathers, color, roots, time, and language." Certain to galvanize national attention, Fatheralong is a fiercely lyrical and revealing memoir that attempts all the while, "among other things, to break out, displace, replace show more the paradigm of race [America's enduring malaise]." As Wideman puts it: "Teach me who I might be, who you might be - without it." From affluent Amherst to blue-collar Pittsburgh to rural South Carolina, here is the story of an American family. Wresting himself free from the shackles of racial ideology, Wideman bravely engages not only the living but also the "ghostlier demarcations" of his family's past, the better to understand who he is today and to heal familial wounds. Fatheralong is a triumphant book of reckoning, an inspiring celebration of homecoming. show lessTags
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Parent and child relationships are often difficult at times. I like to think as we grow older we have greater appreciation for our parents and finally "get" who they were while we were growing up and who they are in later years.
The father and son dynamic in the African American community has often been traditionally more difficult for a myriad of reasons. John Egar Wideman's Fatheralong examines the role of race and the distance that it creates in fostering the African American father and son relationship.
Most of the book is the author's memoir about trying to forge some sort of connection with his distant father, Edgar as they travel to a South Carolina small town named Promised Land. There in Promised Land, father and son comes a show more little bit closer to understanding each other and learn more about their ancestors as well.
I found it to be an especially poignant read. show less
The father and son dynamic in the African American community has often been traditionally more difficult for a myriad of reasons. John Egar Wideman's Fatheralong examines the role of race and the distance that it creates in fostering the African American father and son relationship.
Most of the book is the author's memoir about trying to forge some sort of connection with his distant father, Edgar as they travel to a South Carolina small town named Promised Land. There in Promised Land, father and son comes a show more little bit closer to understanding each other and learn more about their ancestors as well.
I found it to be an especially poignant read. show less
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40+ Works 3,285 Members
Writer John Edgar Wideman was born in Washington, D. C., on June 14, 1941. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, studied at Oxford University, and was the second African American to become a Rhodes Scholar. He taught at the University of Pennsylvania and eventually founded and chaired the African American studies department. He also show more taught at the University of Wyoming and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Wideman is the author of more than a dozen books. Sent for You Yesterday won a PEN/Faulkner Award in 1984, and Philadelphia Fire received one a decade later. Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award (1994) and Brothers and Keepers was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award (1995). (Bowker Author Biography) show less
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