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Overview
A philosopher, psychiatrist, and political activist, Frantz Fanon was a fierce, acute critic of racism and oppression. Born of African descent in Martinique in 1925, Fanon fought in defense of France during World War II but later against France in Algeria’s war for independence. His last book, The Wretched of the Earth, published in 1961, inspired leaders of diverse liberation movements: Steve Biko in South Africa, Che Guevara in Latin America, the Black Panthers in the States. Wideman’s novel is disguised as the project of a contemporary African American novelist,Thomas, who undertakes writing a life of Fanon. The result is an electrifying mix of perspectives, traveling from Manhattan to Paris to Algeria to Pittsburgh. Part whodunit, part screenplay, part love story, Fanon introduces the French film director Jean-Luc Godard to the ailing Mrs. Wideman in Homewood and chases the meaning of Fanon’s legacy through our violent, post-9/11 world, which seems determined to perpetuate the evils Fanon sought to rectify.
Synopsis
Frantz Fanon (1925 1961) fought to free Algeria from French rule and rallied against the oppressive grip of colonialism. In this fictionalized view of the revolutionary's life, an African-American writer travels the world to do research for a biography of Fanon. In a tale that is part love story, mystery, and biography, Fanon examines how a political radical's views apply in a post-9/11 world.
"Beautifully written ..." Publishers Weekly
The Washington Post - James A. Miller
With more than 20 works of fiction and nonfiction to his credit, two PEN/Faulkner awards and a literary society dedicated to his work, Wideman is at the top of his form. In the heightened consciousness he brings to issues of narrative point of view, representation and language, he pushes literary conventions almost beyond their limits, and perhaps beyond some of his readers, too. But the brilliance of his language, the power of his storytelling and the sheer bravado and unexpectedness of his riffs exert considerable charms.
Editorials
James A. Miller
With more than 20 works of fiction and nonfiction to his credit, two PEN/Faulkner awards and a literary society dedicated to his work, Wideman is at the top of his form. In the heightened consciousness he brings to issues of narrative point of view, representation and language, he pushes literary conventions almost beyond their limits, and perhaps beyond some of his readers, too. But the brilliance of his language, the power of his storytelling and the sheer bravado and unexpectedness of his riffs exert considerable charms.—The Washington Post
Lee Siegel
…what Wideman has rivetingly achieved, among other things, is to find a path out of the cul-de-sac of self-consciousness that plagues the contemporary novel…By the end of this thrilling, important novel, which is by turns eloquent, crude, despairing and heartbrokenly hopeful, Fanon has come to be more than a revolutionary (and one, incidentally, who presciently described both the colonizer's morally deluded brutality and the colonized's tendency to destroy themselves with sectarian violence rising from lacerated consciences). The crushing forces Fanon hated become, in Wideman's hands, the conditions of mortality itself.—The New York Times
Publishers Weekly
Psychiatrist and revolutionary Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) fought to free Algeria from French rule, and wrote several key texts on colonialism, including The Wretched of the Earth. Wideman (Brothers and Keepers) offers a fragmented look at Fanon's life, presenting three narratives in fits and starts. The first documents episodes from Fanon's life, including his Martinique childhood and death in a Bethesda, Md., hospital. In the second, a 60-year-old novelist named Thomas writes a screenplay about Fanon that he hopes to sell to Jean-Luc Godard, and, in a jarring narrative turn, receives a package that contains his own head. In the third, a character named John Edgar Wideman writes about his "twin" (Thomas), wrestles with his obsession with Fanon, visits his imprisoned brother Rob and thinks about his wheelchair-bound mother in the Homewood section of Pittsburgh (where Wideman grew up and has set many past stories). Some of the Fanon anecdotes are excellent, but the book as a whole is a series of glittering dead ends, interspersed with thoughts on writing and current affairs, and the irritating story of Thomas's head. Beautifully written but inconclusive, Wideman's 18th book is best approached as a meditation on fiction and character. (Feb.)
Copyright 2007 Reed Business InformationLibrary Journal
This follow-up to God's Gymis narrated by Thomas, who's trying to write a book about political activist Frantz Fanon (1925-61), author of The Wretched of the Earth. The story also revolves around Thomas's aging mother and his brother, who's serving time in Pennsylvania. (LJ10/1/07)
—Ann Burns