This hefty collection reprints Wideman's previous volumes of stories, Fever (1989) and Damballah (1981)—which are also being reprinted this year by the University of Pittsburgh Press as part of a single hardback edition of Wideman's "Homewood Books"—and also includes ten new pieces. Subtitled "All Stories Are True," Wideman's new work blends a number of unconventional narrative voices with some frank autobiographical material, and the result is gripping, urgent, and incendiary. The title piece and "Casa Grande" address the personal tragedies of Wideman's brother and son, both serving time for different murders. The same "Wideman" narrates "Backseat," a reminiscence of his grandmother, and of early sexual escapades. Reality forces him to go behind the veil of fiction—in "Newborn Thrown in Trash and Dies," he gives voice, and an imagined future, to a baby as it falls down a garbage chute; in "A Voice Foretold," he visits the scene of a crime where an innocent black man was murdered by police; and in "What He Saw," he bears witness to the horrors of Soweto, and ponders the ambiguities of his presence there. Wideman continues to test the limits of fiction in a stylistic sense as well. "Loon Man" embodies the mental confusion of its man-boy narrator; "Everybody Knew Bubba Riff' is one long sentence rifling on a murdered homeboy; and "Signs" delves into the psychological complexities of racism. Just when you might suspect the rage and despair to overwhelm him comes "Welcome," a wise and hard-earned meditation on loss that ends with the hope of family, place, and of "keep on keeping on." Despite a few predictable rhetorical bursts, Wideman here proves a remarkable artist, a descendent of Richard Wright, by way of Samuel Beckett. Read chronologically, these stories chart Wideman's growth as a storyteller He's willing to take risks, and most often succeeds triumphantly.
Pub Date: June 1, 1992
ISBN: 0-679-40719-7
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Pantheon
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1992
Chicana writer Castillo (whose reputation until now has been mostly regional) brings a warm, sometimes biting but not bitter feminist consciousness to the wondrous, tragic, and engaging lives of a New Mexico mother and her four fated daughters. Poor Sofi! Abandoned by her gambler husband to raise four unusual girls who tend to rise from adversity only to find disaster. ``La Loca,'' dead at age three, comes back to life—but is unable to bear the smell of human beings; Esperanza succeeds as a TV anchorwoman—but is less successful with her exploitative lover and disappears during the Gulf War; promiscuous, barhopping Caridad—mutilated and left for dead—makes a miraculous recovery, but her life on earth will still be cut short by passion; and the seemingly self-controlled Fe is so efficient that ``even when she lost her mind [upon being jilted]...she did it without a second's hesitation.'' Sofi's life-solution is to found an organization M.O.M.A.S. (Mothers of Martyrs and Saints), while Castillo tries to solve the question of minority-writer aesthetics: Should a work of literature provide a mirror for marginalized identity? Should it celebrate and preserve threatened culture? Should it be politically progressive? Should the writer aim for art, social improvement, or simple entertainment? Castillo tries to do it all—and for the most part succeeds. Storytelling skills and humor allow Castillo to integrate essaylike folklore sections (herbal curing, saint carving, cooking)—while political material (community organizing, toxic chemicals, feminism, the Gulf War) is delivered with unabashed directness and usually disarming charm.
Pub Date: April 17, 1993
ISBN: 0-393-03490-9
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 15, 1993
An experienced novelist takes her sweet time to rich rewards: overall, an affecting saga, nicely handled.
Well-oiled Picoult sets her latest expertly devised search-and-rescue tale in rural New Hampshire, where a kidnapping case is uncovered 28 years too late.
As usual, Picoult (My Sister’s Keeper, 2004, etc.) spins a terrifically suspenseful tale by developing just the right human-interest elements to make a workable story. Single mom Delia Hopkins works with the local Wexton police and a bloodhound named Greta to find lost children. Delia’s close relationship with her divorced, 60-ish father, Andrew, who runs a senior-citizens’ home, grows strained when he’s suddenly arrested on kidnapping charges. The victim is Delia herself, named Bethany Matthews before her father fled with her from a drunken Mexican mother in Arizona. For 28 of her 32 years, Delia has believed her mother was dead. With Andrew extradited to Phoenix, the strange history of the case unravels, complicated by the choice of Delia’s fiancé, Eric (father of daughter Sophie), as Andrew’s lawyer and the assignment of her childhood buddy Fitz to cover the case for his newspaper. Picoult is a thorough, perceptive writer who deliberately presents alternating viewpoints, so that the truth seems constantly to be shifting. When Delia finally meets the attractive, remarried Elise Vasquez, she can’t quite vilify a woman who has been sober for many years and works as a curandera (healer). Her father’s story is both suspect and understandable, especially in light of his horrific treatment in prison, caught up in the violence of rival gangs. The magnetic Eric is a recovering alcoholic who falls off the wagon when stressed, while dependable, silent lover Fitz waits in the wings for his chance. Meanwhile, Delia and Sophie make a fascinating digression into the mythical world of the local Hopi tribe. At times, Picoult goes over the top, allowing Sophie to get lost so that Greta can find her and, at the eleventh hour, inserting into the trial the possibility of Delia’s sexual abuse .
An experienced novelist takes her sweet time to rich rewards: overall, an affecting saga, nicely handled.Pub Date: March 1, 2005
ISBN: 0-7434-5454-5
Page Count: 448
Publisher: Atria
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2005
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