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American Histories
(OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen)

Book Cover
Average Rating
Published:
Novel Audio 2018
Status:
Checked Out
Description

In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life, blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other. With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time, experience, and the soul of our country.

"JB & FD" reimagines conversations between John Brown, the antislavery crusader who famously raided Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and orator, conversations that belie the myth of race and produce a fantastical, ethically rich correspondence that spans years and ideologies.

"Maps and Ledgers" eavesdrops on a brother and sister today as they ponder their father's killing of another man.

"Williamsburg Bridge" sits inside a man sitting on a bridge who contemplates his life before he decides to jump.

"My Dead" is a story about how the already-departed demand more time, more space in the lives of those who survive them.

Navigating an extraordinary range of subject and tone, Wideman challenges the boundaries of traditional forms, and delivers unforgettable, immersive narratives that touch the very core of what it means to be alive. An extended meditation on family, history, and loss, American Histories weaves together historical fact, philosophical wisdom, and deeply personal vignettes. More than the sum of its parts, this is Wideman at his best—emotionally precise and intellectually stimulating—an extraordinary collection by a master.

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Format:
OverDrive MP3 Audiobook, OverDrive Listen
Edition:
Unabridged
Street Date:
03/27/2018
Language:
English
ISBN:
9781518992292
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Citations
APA Citation (style guide)

John Edgar Wideman. (2018). American Histories. Unabridged Novel Audio.

Chicago / Turabian - Author Date Citation (style guide)

John Edgar Wideman. 2018. American Histories. Novel Audio.

Chicago / Turabian - Humanities Citation (style guide)

John Edgar Wideman, American Histories. Novel Audio, 2018.

MLA Citation (style guide)

John Edgar Wideman. American Histories. Unabridged Novel Audio, 2018.

Note! Citation formats are based on standards as of July 2022. Citations contain only title, author, edition, publisher, and year published. Citations should be used as a guideline and should be double checked for accuracy.
Copy Details
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Shared Digital Collection10
Staff View
Grouped Work ID:
0837266b-51e6-b7a3-f55e-78ccd02604bd
Go To Grouped Work
Needs Update?:
No
Date Added:
Jun 12, 2018 19:53:41
Date Updated:
Jun 12, 2018 19:53:41
Last Metadata Check:
Mar 26, 2024 11:31:51
Last Metadata Change:
Feb 08, 2024 18:03:01
Last Availability Check:
Mar 26, 2024 11:31:53
Last Availability Change:
Mar 26, 2024 11:31:53
Last Grouped Work Modification Time:
Mar 29, 2024 02:17:20

OverDrive Product Record

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shortDescription

In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life, blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other. With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time, experience, and the soul of our country.

"JB & FD" reimagines conversations between John Brown, the antislavery crusader who famously raided Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and orator, conversations that belie the myth of race and produce a fantastical, ethically rich correspondence that spans years and ideologies.

"Maps and Ledgers" eavesdrops on a brother and sister today as they ponder their father's killing of another man.

"Williamsburg Bridge" sits inside a man sitting on a bridge who contemplates his life before he decides to jump.

"My Dead" is a story about...

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title
American Histories
fullDescription

In this singular collection, John Edgar Wideman, the acclaimed author of Writing to Save a Life, blends the personal, historical, and political to invent complex, charged stories about love, death, struggle, and what we owe each other. With characters ranging from everyday Americans to Jean-Michel Basquiat to Nat Turner, American Histories is a journey through time, experience, and the soul of our country.

"JB & FD" reimagines conversations between John Brown, the antislavery crusader who famously raided Harper's Ferry, Virginia, and Frederick Douglass, the abolitionist and orator, conversations that belie the myth of race and produce a fantastical, ethically rich correspondence that spans years and ideologies.

"Maps and Ledgers" eavesdrops on a brother and sister today as they ponder their father's killing of another man.

"Williamsburg Bridge" sits inside a man sitting on a bridge who contemplates his life before he decides to jump.

"My Dead" is a story about how the already-departed demand more time, more space in the lives of those who survive them.

Navigating an extraordinary range of subject and tone, Wideman challenges the boundaries of traditional forms, and delivers unforgettable, immersive narratives that touch the very core of what it means to be alive. An extended meditation on family, history, and loss, American Histories weaves together historical fact, philosophical wisdom, and deeply personal vignettes. More than the sum of its parts, this is Wideman at his best—emotionally precise and intellectually stimulating—an extraordinary collection by a master.

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      • premium: True
      • source: AudioFile Magazine
      • content: Narrator Dion Graham so closely ties his pacing and tone to MacArthur fellow John Edgar Wideman's ideas and variety of narrative structures in these essays and stories that he seems to become the writer speaking directly to the listener. The collection itself reaches broadly from the autobiographical and personal to the scholarly and to riffs on language itself, giving Graham an enormous range of opportunities to create character voices for men, women, youth, and the elderly; pronounce rhythmic passages with a full measure of energizing beats; and employ phrasing that echoes Wideman's delight in the power of word repetition, alliteration, and occasional onomatopoeia. Topics include reflections on grading an undergraduate's story; identifying as the son, brother, and father of convicted black men; suicidal ideation; and a nineteenth-century abolitionist. F.M.R.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2018, Portland, Maine
      • premium: True
      • source: Publisher's Weekly
      • content:

        Starred review from January 29, 2018
        Wideman, a finalist for the National Book Award for Fatheralong, boldly subverts notions of what a short story can be in this wonderful collection. In “Williamsburg Bridge” a man plans his suicide from the bridge while considering the lives and deaths of others below him, as well as what has brought him to this point. “Writing Teacher” explores the obligations and feelings of a black professor toward his white fiction writing student after she submits a story about the plights of a young black woman. “JB & FD” imagines a conversation over many years between John Brown and Frederick Douglass; “Nat Turner Confesses” brings the young Nat to life as a boy determined to change his fate. In “Yellow Sea,” a man watches the films Precious and The Yellow Sea and analyzes the characters and their brutal struggles on screen and brings them into his own world, offering advice and empathy. Each story feels new, challenging, and exhilarating, beguilingly combining American history with personal history.

popularity
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publisher
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      • description: Fiction / African American & Black / Historical