Philadelphia Fire - Hardcover

Wideman, John Edgar

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0805012664 ISBN 13: 9780805012668

Publisher: Henry Holt & Co, 1990

Synopsis

At once personal and political, this novel about being Black and male in white America depicts an unyielding core of individual resistance and demonstrates with tragic immediacy how America's mixed signals foster false hopes

About this title

Review:

When African-American writer Cudjoe returns to his hometown of Philadelphia to write a book about the 1985 police firebombing of a black cult, his homecoming spurs within him a myriad of memories and impressions. While recalling the abandonment of his white wife and two children, his failed novel and a dead mentor, he provides rich observation about the about the crumbling state of a once-beloved city. As his research unfolds, he examines issues of sex, race and the life of the city, ultimately uncovering information that sets the entire city into motion. Philadelphia Fire won the PEN/Faulkner Award for 1991.

From the Back Cover:

"A passionate, angry and formally fascinating novel of urban disintegration."

-- The New York Times Book Review"A book brimming over with brutal, emotional honesty and moments of beautiful prose lyricism."

-- Charles Johnson, Washington Post Book World

"A blaze of rage...Wideman's genius for impassioned imagery triumphs and Philadelphia Fire delivers its message with a careening momentum and astonishing precision.... Wideman [is] our most powerful and accomplished artist of the urban black world."

-- Los Angeles Times Book Review

"Like the Russian master [Dostoevsky], Wideman probes the torments of the soul.... [He] is fashioning some of the most powerful literature today." -- U.S. News & World Report

About this edition

• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Publication date: 1990
• ISBN 10: 0805012664
• ISBN 13: 9780805012668
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 199