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Hurry Home
On the night after his wedding a Black lawyer flees America and his wife, in search of the missing pieces which he hopes will heal his fragmented existence
- GenresFiction
185 pages, Hardcover
First published April 1, 1986
35 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 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 31, 2025
Wideman swings like a bastard on his second novel. It positively reeks of 1970's plangent collapse of the countercultural zeitbullshitgeist, and his bug-eyed paranoia sits well within its historical context. However, the tendency to attempt dislocation through ye olde narrative linearity/character swap/POV seizure-inducing shift is less than masterfully executed; the result tracks like someone more than conversant in experimental literature's, well, first attempt at a truly experimental novel.
Pynchonians, DeLilloites, McElroyvians et. al. should find much to appreciate here, but I do caution that Wideman is not yet in his imperial era of the form. If you can get with sloppy and disregard some clunkiness unaware of its slip showing, there's much here for you. It's noble to exceed grasp when reach is genuine. Plus, who wouldn't benefit from some more High Era paranoid-void pages that forego the Auto-tune and fenestrations? Get yourself lost.
Pynchonians, DeLilloites, McElroyvians et. al. should find much to appreciate here, but I do caution that Wideman is not yet in his imperial era of the form. If you can get with sloppy and disregard some clunkiness unaware of its slip showing, there's much here for you. It's noble to exceed grasp when reach is genuine. Plus, who wouldn't benefit from some more High Era paranoid-void pages that forego the Auto-tune and fenestrations? Get yourself lost.
December 28, 2020
This book was poetic and at times difficult to follow.
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August 15, 2010Not my thing...
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August 7, 2011I liked "Sent for You Yesterday" better.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews