You made me love you : selected stories, 1981-2018 / John Edgar Wideman.

Title :

You made me love you : selected stories, 1981-2018

Author:

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Books

Summary:

Fifty-seven short stories drawn from past collections celebrate the lifelong significance of this major American writer's essential contribution to a form--illuminating the ways that he has made it his own.

When John Edgar Wideman won the PEN/Malamud Award for Excellence in the Short Story, he joined a list of esteemed writers-from Eudora Welty to George Saunders-who are acknowleged masters of the short story. Here he gathers a representative selection from his career, stories that challenge what defines, separates, and unites us, and to quote Wideman, seek to "deconstruct the given formulas of African American culture and life." Wideman's stories are grounded in the streets and the people of Homewood, the Pittsburgh neighborhood of his childhood, but they range far beyond there, to the small western towns of Wyoming and to historic Philadelphia, the comtemporary world, and the ancient past. He explores the lives of his characters and the pressures that shape them. "John Edgar Wideman's short stories render an internal and external world as vivid and intricate as Faulkner's as emotionally painful as Baldwin's, and as unique as his own streets and stoops of Homewood," write the PEN/Malamud Award selection committee. You Made Me Love You, composed of fifty-seven stories drawn from past collections, is introduced by Walton Muyumba, a Wideman scholar and associate professor of English at Indiana University. In its totality, this volume celebrates the lifelong significance of a major American writer's essential contribution to a form.

Language:

English

ISBN - ISSN:

9781982148911

1982148918

Physical Description:

xxvii, 462 pages : genealogical table ; 22 cm

Contents:

Introduction / by Walton Muyumba -- Damballah (1981). To Robby ; Damballah: good serpent of the sky ; Begat chart ; Damballah ; Daddy garbage ; Lizabeth ; Across the wide Missouri ; Tommy ; Solitary -- Fever (1989). Doc's story ; Surfiction ; Fever -- All stories are true (1992). All stories are true ; Backseat ; What he saw ; Newborn thrown in trash and dies ; Welcome -- God's Gym (2005). Weight ; The silence of Thelonious Monk ; Are dreams faster than the speed of light ; Who invented the jump shot ; What we cannot speak about we must pass over in silence -- Briefs (2010). Witness ; To Barry Bonds: home run king ; War stories ; Close ; Party ; Automatic ; Writing ; Breath ; Message ; Manhole ; Martyr ; Ruins ; Cleaning up ; You are my sunshine ; New work ; Short story ; Swimming ; Answering service ; Ghetto ; Review ; Fall ; Now you see it ; First love suite ; Ralph Waldo Ellison ; Genocide ; Passing on ; Haiku ; Wolf whistle ; Shadow -- American histories (2018). JB & FD ; My dead ; Maps and ledgers ; Williamsburg Bridge ; Nat Turner confesses ; Collage.

Subject:

African Americans -- Fiction.

Short stories.

Nouvelles.

First Title value, for Searching:

You made me love you : selected stories, 1981-2018 / John Edgar Wideman.

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Library	Audience	Home Location	Material Type	Shelf Number	Status
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Summary

A powerful and "stunning" ( Publishers Weekly , starred review) selection of the best of John Edgar Wideman's short stories over his fifty-year career, representing the wide range of his intellectual and artistic pursuits.

When John Edgar Wideman won the PEN Malamud Award in 2019, he joined a list of esteemed writers--from Eudora Welty to George Saunders--all of whom are acknowledged masters of the short story. Wideman's commitment to short fiction has been lifelong, and here he gathers a representative selection from throughout his career, stories that "have a wary, brooding spirit, a lonely intelligence...[and] air the problem of consciousness, including the fragile contingency of our existence" ( The New York Times ).

Wideman's stories are grounded in the streets and the people of Homewood, the Pittsburgh neighborhood of his childhood, but they range far beyond there, to the small western towns of Wyoming and historic Philadelphia, the contemporary world and the ancient past. He explores the interior lives of his characters, and the external pressures that shape them. These stories are as intellectually intricate as they are rich with the language and character. "Wideman has been compared to William Faulkner and James Baldwin...[these] prove that he is every bit as masterful a cartographer of the American spirit as his forebears" ( Esquire ).

Comprised of thirty-five stories drawn from past collections ( American Histories , Briefs , God's Gym , All Stories Are True , Fever , and Damballah ), and an introductory essay by the National Book Critics Circle board member and scholar Walton Muyumba, this volume of Wideman's selected stories celebrates the lifelong significance of this major American writer's essential contribution to a form--illuminating the ways that he has made it his own. "If there were any doubts Wideman belongs to the American canon, this puts them to bed" ( Publishers Weekly , starred review).

Author Notes

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 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)

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

This career-spanning collection of work by Wideman (Brother's Keeper), with a revelatory foreword by critic and scholar Walton Muyumba, offers a stunning showcase of Wideman's range. In stories selected from 1981's Damballah up through 2018's American Histories, Wideman conveys a mastery of gritty realism, freewheeling blues, erudite autofiction, and African American mysticism, often grounded in a semi-fictional version of the Homewood section of Pittsburgh, the historically Black neighborhood where Wideman grew up. "Solitary" chronicles a mother's daylong ordeal to visit her son in prison, while in "Daddy Garbage," an iceball vendor's dog is hell-bent on eating from garbage cans: "Strayhorn knew it was less holding on to puppy ways than it was stone craziness, craziness age nor nothing else ever going to change." Wideman shines brightest in pieces that tunnel through history or the narrator's consciousness as they build to their reveals, such as "Maps and Ledgers," in which a writing professor ruminates on stories such as that of an ancestor who escaped from slavery. Muyumba convincingly encourages close reading of "Damballah," about an unnamed enslaved boy who honors the severed head of a man punished for practicing West African rituals: "listen to the head," Muyumba writes. If there were any doubts Wideman belongs to the American canon, this puts them to bed. Agent: Jin Auh, the Wylie Agency. (April)

Booklist Review

Spanning three decades and showcasing 35 stories from venerated Wideman's accomplished career, this stunning collection is a testament to ingenious storytelling. Through vividly portrayed voices, evocative settings, and expansive themes, these tales put Wideman's talent for exploring the indelible connections that unite generations on full display. Beginning with selections from Damballah (1981), the first book in the author's now classic Homewood trilogy, the collection opens a door into the compelling inner lives of unforgettable characters. From the start, the reader understands what Walton Muyumba writes in his elegant introduction about the author's desires for "both close connections between his life and his works, and the ambiguities that literary writing can create." Whether presenting, in "Fever," a collage of voices from persons both real and fictional during the 1793 yellow fever outbreak in Philadelphia; relating a brief, tragic story in the precisely titled "Newborn Thrown in Trash and Dies;" or imagining a conversation between Frederick Douglass and John Brown in "JB & FD," the stories throughout are exemplary examples of how Wideman's works are able to endure, to transcend time and place, and to resonate. This is an essential collection for both readers familiar with Wideman's oeuvre and those just discovering this modern master.

Walton Muyumba

Introduction	p. xi
Damballah (1981)	p. 1
To Robby	p. 3
Damballah: Good Serpent of the Sky	p. 5
A Begat Chart	p. 7
Damballah	p. 9
Daddy Garbage	p. 19
Lizabeth: The Caterpillar Story	p. 35
Across the Wide Missouri	p. 51
Tommy	p. 59
Solitary	p. 77
Fever (1989)	p. 89
Doc's Story	p. 91
Surfiction	p. 99
Fever	p. 107
All Stories Are True (1992)	p. 133
All Stories Are True	p. 135
Backseat	p. 149
What He Saw	p. 175
Newborn Thrown in Trash and Dies	p. 191
Welcome	p. 199
God's Gym (2005)	p. 213
Weight	p. 215
The Silence of Thelonious Monk	p. 229
Are Dreams Faster Than the Speed of Light	p. 241
Who Invented the Jump Shot	p. 257
What We Cannot Speak About We Must Pass Over in Silence	p. 275
Briefs (2010)	p. 297
Witness	p. 299
To Barry Bonds: Home Run King	p. 301
War Stories	p. 303
Close	p. 305
Party	p. 307
Automatic	p. 309
Writing	p. 311
Breath	p. 313
Message	p. 315
Manhole	p. 317
Martyr	p. 319
Ruins	p. 321
Cleaning Up	p. 323
You Are My Sunshine	p. 325
New Work	p. 327
Short Story	p. 329
Swimming	p. 331
Answering Service	p. 333
Ghetto	p. 335
Review	p. 337
Fall	p. 339
Now You See It	p. 341
First Love Suite	p. 343
Ralph Waldo Ellison	p. 345
Genocide	p. 347
Passing On	p. 349
Haiku	p. 351
Wolf Whistle	p. 353
Shadow	p. 355
American Histories (2018)	p. 357
JB & FD	p. 359
My Dead	p. 377
Maps and Ledgers	p. 381
Williamsburg Bridge	p. 397
Nat Turner Confesses	p. 425
Collage	p. 443
Notes	p. 461

Available:*

Bound With These Titles

On Order

Summary

Summary

Author Notes

Reviews (2)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Booklist Review

Table of Contents