Readings, Rated
John Edgar Wideman
Date: Monday, February 25th, 2008
Time: 6:00 p.m.
Location: Harold Washington Library
Supernovelist John Edgar Wideman has written a book about Frantz Fanon. I get gooey when it comes to Fanon — he’s definitely my favorite prose stylist among 20th century theorists. After I saw the quarter-page ad for Fanon in last month’s Harper’s, went looking for it at Borders a few weeks ago, but neither of the two booksellers who attempted to help me were able to find it (I could ascribe this to some sort of late-capitalist conspiracy, but I prefer not to). Anyway, I haven’t read it yet. No word yet from any Colonial Studies folks as to whether or not this book is any good, but the premise sounds promising — the plot follows an African-American novelist who’s writing a book about Fanon’s life, who discovers that many of the problems Fanon faced persist (gasp!) in post-9/11 America.