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Fatheralong: A Meditation on Fathers and Sons, Race and Society
Provides a memoir that explores the roots of identity, the complexities of family relationships, and the struggle to heal in the face of familial estrangement and racial ideology
197 pages, Hardcover
First published September 20, 1994
111 people want to read
About the author
John Edgar Wideman
95 books408 followersA widely-celebrated writer and the winner of many literary awards, he is the first to win the International PEN/Faulkner Award twice: in 1984 for Sent for You Yesterday and in 1990 for Philadelphia Fire. In 2000 he won the O. Henry Award for his short story "Weight", published in The Callaloo Journal.
In March, 2010, he self-published "Briefs," a new collection of microstories, on Lulu.com. Stories from the book have already been selected for the O Henry Prize for 2010 and the Best African-American Fiction 2010 award.
His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Award. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. He also graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Critics Circle nomination, and his memoir Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant. Wideman was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1998, for outstanding achievement in that genre. In 1997, his novel The Cattle Killing won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction.
He has taught at the University of Wyoming, University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He currently teaches at Brown University, and he sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.
In March, 2010, he self-published "Briefs," a new collection of microstories, on Lulu.com. Stories from the book have already been selected for the O Henry Prize for 2010 and the Best African-American Fiction 2010 award.
His nonfiction book Brothers and Keepers received a National Book Award. He grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and much of his writing is set there, especially in the Homewood neighborhood of the East End. He graduated from Pittsburgh's Peabody High School, then attended the University of Pennsylvania, where he became an All-Ivy League forward on the basketball team. He was the second African-American to win a Rhodes Scholarship (New College, Oxford University, England), graduating in 1966. He also graduated from the University of Iowa Writers' Workshop.
Critics Circle nomination, and his memoir Fatheralong was a finalist for the National Book Award. He is also the recipient of a MacArthur genius grant. Wideman was chosen as winner of the Rea Award for the Short Story in 1998, for outstanding achievement in that genre. In 1997, his novel The Cattle Killing won the James Fenimore Cooper Prize for Best Historical Fiction.
He has taught at the University of Wyoming, University of Pennsylvania, where he founded and chaired the African American Studies Department, and the University of Massachusetts at Amherst's MFA Program for Poets & Writers. He currently teaches at Brown University, and he sits on the contributing editorial board of the literary journal Conjunctions.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 25, 2009
Wideman is such a penetrating and insightful writer, his books should really be more widely read. At his best, he rises almost to the level of Baldwin.
October 28, 2018
Fatheralong by John Edgar Wideman, written in 1994, is an interesting treatment. I have read other book by him, including the important work on how he and his brother’s lives take different directions. Wideman grew up in Pittsburgh and has written about his life, Pittsburgh and other issues. This book is far reaching, struggling with his own relationship with his father, who raised his family and then left to live on his own. John had already left for college, so he was not left to struggle with his father departure. Family tension has been building, but it took courage to leave the setting, once the last son graduated high school. This separation from “the family” meant Edgar, the father, was often omitted from family events. People would not think about him, which happens in various points in the story telling.
The father, Edgar, served in a World War, but which war is not clear. The family roots are in Promised Land in SC, but his father and other siblings are part of the migration to Pittsburgh. So being in SC in the army meant many divisions between the Pittsburgh people and those who grew up in SC.
Wideman, born in 1941, was not part of the baby boom. This father worked as a waiter in the restaurant at Kaufman Department Store in Pittsburgh. He also did other service work, keeping him from his family and also putting him in White people’s spaces. His silences might be part of the impact of doing that service work in the 1940s and 1950s—and later, but there are not enough attention to time.
I found the details of his father’s work interesting, since my own father did service work, but Wideman’s book lacks critical details that would help build a time table. He uses history for his own purpose. Again, dates would help me see the wider picture.
As an adult, there is distance between John and his father. John stays at his mother’s when visiting Pittsburgh, so he only sees his father on the side. Breakfasts, drinks at a bar, and so forth. His meetings with his grandchildren are a few moments in public places. Much of the book involves John’s trip with his father to SC, to explore the family roots. They plan this trip and fly and then drive between three points. This exploration of history is interesting, since he does consider the history of slavery and the way that enslaved people made a life in the space they were given. Learning about his ancestors is important to putting his own life in perspective.
Conversations with various people in SC are revealing. They connect with “Littleman,” a relative who had spent time in Pittsburgh, thus those conversations help to fill in important gaps. Learning the real names of family members is central, as these connections are critical to making visible the history that was erased by the dominant culture. John also connects with a White historian who knows about the region. This prompts John to thinking about the legacy of racial inequality. Lomax, the historian, was the same age as John’s father, but his own racial privileges meant his life took a path that is very different Edgar Wideman. How do we feel in the face of racial privilege?
The book moves around, including how Edgar does not connect with other family members to make it to John’s son’s wedding. A sister does fund Edgar to take the train, so John has to pick him up at the Springfield train station. Yet, his father is forgotten again, so he does not actually get to the wedding on time. Families are complicated.
I get lost in much of the male stuff. Images of fighting, the pull of sex clubs, and the lack of communications in families. There is a huge gulf in that family, but we can see that in other families, especially those scarred by racial oppression.
The ending stories are hard to read, since you cannot sort out the characters and places. Who is the father? Who is the son? What are the issues? Maybe I am too focused on social structure to appreciation all these digressions. Yet, much of the book did help me think about how a Black man born in 1941 would think about the role of race and gender in his life. What are the roles of mothers and father? There could be more attention to social class. As John becomes middle class, but is raised in a working-class environment. He has some of those behavioral impulses, even if they are not really expressed. Yet, they show up in the writing.
The father, Edgar, served in a World War, but which war is not clear. The family roots are in Promised Land in SC, but his father and other siblings are part of the migration to Pittsburgh. So being in SC in the army meant many divisions between the Pittsburgh people and those who grew up in SC.
Wideman, born in 1941, was not part of the baby boom. This father worked as a waiter in the restaurant at Kaufman Department Store in Pittsburgh. He also did other service work, keeping him from his family and also putting him in White people’s spaces. His silences might be part of the impact of doing that service work in the 1940s and 1950s—and later, but there are not enough attention to time.
I found the details of his father’s work interesting, since my own father did service work, but Wideman’s book lacks critical details that would help build a time table. He uses history for his own purpose. Again, dates would help me see the wider picture.
As an adult, there is distance between John and his father. John stays at his mother’s when visiting Pittsburgh, so he only sees his father on the side. Breakfasts, drinks at a bar, and so forth. His meetings with his grandchildren are a few moments in public places. Much of the book involves John’s trip with his father to SC, to explore the family roots. They plan this trip and fly and then drive between three points. This exploration of history is interesting, since he does consider the history of slavery and the way that enslaved people made a life in the space they were given. Learning about his ancestors is important to putting his own life in perspective.
Conversations with various people in SC are revealing. They connect with “Littleman,” a relative who had spent time in Pittsburgh, thus those conversations help to fill in important gaps. Learning the real names of family members is central, as these connections are critical to making visible the history that was erased by the dominant culture. John also connects with a White historian who knows about the region. This prompts John to thinking about the legacy of racial inequality. Lomax, the historian, was the same age as John’s father, but his own racial privileges meant his life took a path that is very different Edgar Wideman. How do we feel in the face of racial privilege?
The book moves around, including how Edgar does not connect with other family members to make it to John’s son’s wedding. A sister does fund Edgar to take the train, so John has to pick him up at the Springfield train station. Yet, his father is forgotten again, so he does not actually get to the wedding on time. Families are complicated.
I get lost in much of the male stuff. Images of fighting, the pull of sex clubs, and the lack of communications in families. There is a huge gulf in that family, but we can see that in other families, especially those scarred by racial oppression.
The ending stories are hard to read, since you cannot sort out the characters and places. Who is the father? Who is the son? What are the issues? Maybe I am too focused on social structure to appreciation all these digressions. Yet, much of the book did help me think about how a Black man born in 1941 would think about the role of race and gender in his life. What are the roles of mothers and father? There could be more attention to social class. As John becomes middle class, but is raised in a working-class environment. He has some of those behavioral impulses, even if they are not really expressed. Yet, they show up in the writing.
Want to read
December 16, 2016* Understanding Oppression: African American Rights (Then and Now)
With resonant artistry and unflagging directness, Wideman examines the tragedy of race and the gulf it cleaves between black fathers and black sons. He does so chiefly through the lens of his own relations with his remote father, producing a memoir that belongs alongside the classics of Richard Wright and Malcolm X. #activist #civilrights
With resonant artistry and unflagging directness, Wideman examines the tragedy of race and the gulf it cleaves between black fathers and black sons. He does so chiefly through the lens of his own relations with his remote father, producing a memoir that belongs alongside the classics of Richard Wright and Malcolm X. #activist #civilrights
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews